We Don't Need Wings to Fly
by A Wordsmith
Summary: The first mutants to escape? Hardly. This is the story of the many more who figured out how to spring a lock on their cages and make their way to the outdoors. OC Submit story! SYOC! Form on profile.
1. Chapter 1

The footsteps of the Erasers pounded along the walls and all around her.

There was four of them, bulging with inhuman muscles and covered in a thin layer of brown fur. Two were on either side of her, each one holding one of the chains that were wrapped around her wrists and ankles. They were made of tight metal that chafed against her fur, and she resisted the urge to try and readjust them.

The one behind her shoved at her back, making her stumble forward. The sandy red fur over her entire body bristled, and she growled fiercely through the muzzle covering her mouth. They didn't want to take any chances with her fangs. It laughed harshly but pulled its arm back, but its grip tightened on the chain leading to a metal collar around her neck.

The white washed hallways were bright and burning against her light sensitive eyes, and she blinked them furiously. She flicked her ears irritably. They protruded from the top of her head, almost eight inches long and pointed with a long tuft of black fur on top. Her short tail curled tighter against her leg.

The hallway ended quickly, though she couldn't tell very well from the large Eraser in front of her. She hissed when they yanked on her chains, forcing her to stop. The one behind her was particularly brutal, her head jerking backwards as he pulled on it. Her claws flexed against the casings covering her hands.

When she was still being tested by real scientists that were searching for an answer within her DNA, they weren't nearly so cautious with her. She had been less tied up, sometimes even allowed to have her claws free in the hallways, though she had always had an escorting guard of Erasers. She was treated better too, given a tiny room that she could actually stand up in. But now, when she was an expendable mutant like hundreds of others, they took no chances. She was a danger now; even more so when she was being forced to fight in the Arena.

The lead Eraser stepped forward and pressed his furry paw against a small pad near a blank white wall. It beeped softly, emitting a bright green light. Only a second later and the door _hissed_ open, splitting the wall into two perfect halves that slid into the wall next to them. The one behind her shoved her roughly, pushing her forward and almost straight into the lead Eraser. He - and she was pretty sure that it was a he - growled down at her, amber yellow eyes burning. He stepped aside, and the two Erasers holding her chains stepped into the room, pulling her along.

She tried to wrench her arms closer to her chest, but it was to no avail. The Erasers were much more prepared and stronger than her underdeveloped form. They barely twitched when she pulled.

She was in a small room with only two doors. One lead forward, while one was behind her. The room was made of the same burning white tile as the hallways outside, and her eyes smarted. She half closed their pale yellow-green iris', glaring out through her slitted pupils.

The Eraser on her left hesitantly reached forward, putting a paw on both sides of her head. A small _click_ and then the muzzle holding her jaw closed slipped off. She took an instant deep breath before running her sandpaper tongue over her lips. Air not tainted by the rough cloth that had covered her mouth flowed into her, and she greedily sucked more in.

She stared as the Eraser retreated slowly, its paws moving slowly as to not provoke her. Erasers were smart around mutants, no matter how they acted in battle. They had lived their whole lives doing this; they had picked up some tricks. They would be dead if they didn't.

Her lips twisted up to one side, exposing her right canine. It was large, much bigger than the Erasers' when they were in this form. But they didn't even move, instead going down to check on her shackles they had on her also extended down to cover her entire paws, so she couldn't release her claws and hurt anyone. When they released her, she would be completely free to do that again. As both Erasers bent down to unlock the restraints on her feet, the collar around her neck tightened harshly, and she froze.

A single beautiful _click_ later and her feet were free. She lifted them up obediently, letting them slide the thin covers off of her paws.

The second she could feel the pads on her feet touch the cool ground, she sighed in relief. She hated having her feet covered. Her feet were very animalistic, and had both thick, gripping pads and stiff fur. They were excellent for balance and gripping things. Her paws were the same, and she had found it was almost impossible for anything to be taken out of her grasp.

The Eraser were already working on her hands, and they were slipped off and taken out of her sight the next second. She rubbed her pads together, feeling the roughness she was so used to.

The door behind her _hissed_ open, and she jumped, powerful legs pushing her a foot off the ground. Her claws shot out of her hands, five black and sharp from each paw and foot. She hissed, fangs out and exposed.

The metal collar slammed against her windpipe, crushing it and cutting off her air. She wheezed but froze, her claws slowly sliding back into her fur covered hands.

"Is this CC01?" A woman's voice asked. She could feel her giant ears press against her skull. She hated this scientist.

"Yes, Miss Kyler." The Eraser holding her collar said respectfully. She could imagine his head bowed to the woman and her eyes darkened.

She held silent as the woman walked around her to meet her eyes. Kyler's dull blue ones met her own, unforgiving and powerful. She towered over her, white coat snug against her body.

"Shift," she hissed out. She held up the clipboard always in her hands and took a step backwards.

She growled, feeling her haunches rise and claws poke teasingly out. But Kyler just stared at her with those dead eyes, and delicately fingered the papers in the clipboard.

The Eraser kept a tight hold on the chain as she marched angrily over to the closest wall, taking some tiny bit of satisfaction when the woman had to step closer to observe her. The other two Erasers stepped back on either side of her, ready to stop if she got dangerous.

She turned around sharply and pressed her back against the wall. She pushed back harder and harder, feeling her bones begin to creak and move. Her back began to burn, but she gritted her teeth and continued. After only a few minutes, her spine snapped into position and she fell onto all fours.

That was her special ability, and she was proud of it. With a little work and pain, she could force her spine into a different position, allowing her to walk on all fours easily like a real animal. It was exhausting and she'd be tired later, but she was faster, stronger. It was special only to her, and while it took a little time, she was so much better after shifting. But she wasn't very good at using this form, having lived most of her life on her feet only. She stumbled often and fell more, but she was better.

She would win this fight, even though it was only her second in the Arena.

Kyler grinned mockingly down at her before making a small note in her clipboard. She marched back out the door behind her, flicking her fingers at the Eraser holding the chain. The door closed behind her, leaving her in a closed off room.

The two Erasers stepped over to the other door, standing on either side. One pressed his paw to another pad, and the door began to slide open.

She shifted on her haunches, the Erasers towering much higher above her. The one holding the chain fiddled with her collar until it finally snapped off, freeing her from the last constraint. The Eraser's tensed up, eyes fixed on her fangs and claws. She cracked her neck, no more metal keeping her from moving it. Her tail whipped through the air.

The door open fully, bringing within the sharp scent of trees and water. The Eraser landed a firm kick to her furry back, and she yowled in frustration. She tore through the door, emerging into the Arena.

It was a genetically created forest inside of a building.

The room was amazingly tall with a glass roof, the top domed and curvy. It allowed flying mutants to attack from above, and let the trees grow with the sunlight. The walls were painted a soft green, covered by a thick and slippery coating that stopped most mutants from trying to climb up it. The ground was covered in thick dirt with random patches of sand, all of it swirled up and shifted from mutants.

The main feature was a small group of trees in the centre. They were big and tall, covered in fluffy green leaves that were much more vibrant than the walls. Some had different leaves and barks, barely any two alike. She couldn't see them, but she knew there were several ponds and streams spotted around the middle.

It was the Arena.

A loud buzzing filled the room, and she winced and shook her head violently. Her tail thrashed against her legs, not long enough to do anything else.

The buzz cut off, and a man's voice cut into the room. It was still too loud for her advanced hearing, and her giant black tipped ears twitched.

"We have CC01 and FPD10 in the Arena today. The match continues until one is not able to fight."

She had long since figured out what the name meant. It talked about what animal she was. Caracal - Common. She was the first subject to be injected with Common Caracal DNA, which made her unique, she guessed.

But that was not her name. That was something chosen by a person who only looked at what they had created her to be.

She didn't know who FPD10 was. She guessed she would find out.

She took a careful paw forward, swivelling her ears back and forward. They were her greatest asset; being almost a foot tall, they could sense almost anything around her. The black tufts of fur on the top were like extra limbs; she could feel disturbances in the air above her with them.

A soft sound, like someone stepping on dirt, came from her left. She spun towards there, coming around to see a girl.

She was short, probably shorter than she was standing up. Her hair was short, curly and blonde, and her eyes were a dark black. Completely black. She was half standing in the shadow of a tall tree, arms tucked to her chest.

She leant backwards and settled on her back legs, shifting until she was sitting comfortably. "FPD10?" She guessed.

The girl winced, and she suddenly became aware of bright blue and yellow splotches all over her throat, seemingly on her skin like it was her own self. Her animal instincts screamed at her.

 _Poisonous! Do not eat!_

"Neon." She said quickly, rubbing her fingers together. Her black eyes stared almost curiously at her ears. "Are you part cat?"

She nodded, tail idly flicking. Her claws slowly slid out, carving ruts in the soft dirt. "I go by Reflex," she answered back. "I'm 11% Caracal."

Neon blinked once. "That's a lot," she said softly. "I'm only 4% Poison Dart Frog."

Reflex stiffened, pale eyes fixing on the colours over Neon's skin. They weren't very bright, but they were big, and they covered most everywhere that she could see. There were tiny black lines that ran from her shoulders and disappeared beneath her clothing, much fainter than the splotches over her throat.

 _Poison?_

Neon looked down to one side, shoulders falling slightly and her arms hugged her chest. "Don't touch me," she offered up.

Reflex hissed softly. Her claws ached as she dug deeper into the ground, scraping against stone. "I understand."

Her ears flicked again, catching the slight sound of the dirt moving around Neon's feet. Her legs tensed.

She took one last look at the mutant forced inside of this place and changed forever, before whipping around and darting into the trees.

 **Hi, everyone! Welcome to the first chapter of my OC Submit!**

 **Shout out to LittlePineCone for giving me Neon!**

 **In case you didn't understand, here's how the naming system works -**

 **CC01 ( Caracal - Common - Test Subject 1) or (Species - Subspecies - Test Subject Number)**

 **Please leave more OCs! I really need more than what I have to make this a true story!**

 **Frost OUT!**


	2. Chapter 2

The trees were sharp on her nose as she plowed through the thick grass that ringed around them. She was used to the soft, sterile scents of the hallways and cages, not something strange and foreign like this. And every scent was moving; there was a soft wind made by fans that blew the air throughout the Arena, so every second it was something new. Her ears were on overload, catching every little detail to the rustling leaves or a tiny twitch of bark. She had never had the chance to use her ears like this before. It was exhilarating.

Reflex's paws lightly stepped around soft footprints stuck in the ground. They had tiny pads on where she make out the toes. She had followed several old trails, ones that other mutants that had fought before. Her face was lowered slightly to the ground, nose close to the footprints. She sniffed every few seconds, smelling the slight stinging scent in every footprint.

Neon's entire smell was covered in the dangerous warning of poison. It seems that she hadn't been lying when she said not to touch her, and Reflex had no intentions of disobeying. The toxins that seemed to fall from the girl's skin had soaked slightly into the ground, leaving a clear trail to where she was. Her fur stuck up in sandy red clumps, animal instincts disagreeing with her hunting a creature like this.

She froze.

Her tail flicked against her leg, stirring around her fur. Her giant left ear flicked to point backward, greatly increasing her range of hearing. Her legs bent slightly, tucking herself closer to the ground. She waited, as tense as was mutantly possible.

The footprints had stopped; completely.

The last one was pressed deeply into the ground, a tremendous amount of force used in making it. Neon had jumped. But there was no other footprints she could see, no other sign of where she was. Her muscles shifted.

A rustle.

Reflex threw herself forward and launched right towards a tall tree.

Her claws popped out with blinding speed and she dug them into the soft bark of the tree. They started to slid down several inches but she had hooked her back paws into the ground and pushed up.

Her curved claws flashed and she was several feet up in the tree, muscles straining to keep herself attached in a vertical position. She caught sight of a thick branch only a short bit above her. With a couple more pushes and hooked claws into the bark, she flung herself onto the branch and stopped.

Chest heaving slightly, she sunk her claws deeply into the wood. Small breaths hissed out from between her fangs. Her ears still flicked, angling downwards to catch any sounds below her. She waited for a few seconds to catch her breath, adrenaline coursing through her veins.

She started to look down, peeking over the thick branch to the ground below. She only managed a second before her vision spun slightly, world swirling below her. She squeezed her eyes shut and released her claws deeper into the wood. The branch creaked slightly as she mangled it. She took deep, calming breaths, forcing her body to slow down.

She waited a few seconds after she thought it was safe, her heart beat slowing and breaths steadying. She stared back down at the ground. She couldn't see anything other than patches of grass and fallen leaves, but a flash of color interrupted the greens and browns. It was the blinding white of the standard shirt and pants that all mutants were forced to wear.

Neon was slinking in the shadow of the tree she was in, eery eyes staring up at her tense form. Reflex hissed softly, fangs bared. Her eyes narrowed, body tensing against the branch. Her claws flashed and she moved farther out on the branch, closer to the mutant. The splotches of yellow and blue on her skin contrasted sharply in the light.

Neon unconsciously angled her body weight slightly closer to the tree, arms stiffening around her chest. But she didn't move any more than that, seemingly content to watch Reflex pace along her branch.

The opposing mutants had a small stare off, black against pale green. Reflex tensed closer to the trunk, mouth open in a silent snarl. Hind legs shifting slightly, she pushed her balance backward. Her paws angled to press fully against the trunk of the tree, a stable force to push against. With her tail flicking back and forth, she strengthened her steadiness as best she could.

And then Neon was gone, disappearing around the base of a tree. The white clothing Reflex had been using to pick her out was gone.

Reflex hissed, claws digging in and out of the bark. She scanned below her furiously, green eyes narrowed. Her ears searched for the barest of sounds; a rustle of leaves, a breaking branch.

But there was nothing. Neon, the elusive mutant, was gone. The tree she'd gone around was opposite to Reflex, meaning she could be doing anything behind it. She had to get down.

The branch seemed much higher off the ground when she was inside it, the world swaying below her in a way that had nothing to do with how she was moving. Her tail straightened out, aiding in her balance. She shot one last angry look around before starting to make her way down.

She inched her way back over to the trunk, twisting until she was facing it. She sunk her claws into an area right above her head, digging them past the bark and into the wood itself. Slowly, she started to shift her weight off of the branch until she was completely hanging on the trunk, back paws slipping over to attach themselves to the wood as well. She hung there for a few seconds before moving again. She started to release one of her hands to start moving down when a stick snapped right behind her.

Reflex yowled and jumped, eyes widening and hands jerking. Both of her paws ripped out of the trunk as she started to fall, claws slashing through the air. She twisted and writhed, pulling herself around to face the ground. She caught a glimpse of Neon with a broken twig grasped in both hands before she slammed into her.

Reflex screamed, thrashing her claws out. They made contact with bare skin, ripping it open. She saw a sudden flash of red and heard a scream not her own before her legs suddenly froze.

She toppled, falling forcefully on one side. Her shoulder thumped against the ground, sending waves of pain through her.

A burning, tickling sensation ran up her legs, reaching her chest and flowing through her body. And when she tried to sit up, she couldn't.

Then it roared through her arms, moving as quickly as water. Her hands twitched once before they were unmovable.

And then her head, mouth parting slightly and eyes fully blown open.

She couldn't move at all. She was stuck with her claws extended and half stuck in Neon's back, mouth open in a silent scream and back half bent.

She looked around in horror, unable to move her head to the side to get a better view. And then saw her legs. Her legs touching Neon's bare side. Neon's bare _poison dart frog_ side.

She watched through completely widened eyes as Neon cried out only once, face drawing up in a scrunched wince. She stayed frozen before moving slowly forward and detaching Reflex's claws from her skin. There was a slight trickle of blood that began to bleed around the slashes in her clothing. Reflex could see even more strange spots of color around the three wounds on her back.

Neon's wince deepened, fingers probing around her wounds. They weren't bad, already slightly closing up. She then looked over at Reflex, frozen on the ground.

"You're paralyzed." She turned away again, pushing herself up to unsteady feet. Her black eyes swiveled to meet Reflex's. "That's what my poison does."

She almost turned away, before her brows lowered and she stared into Reflex's open eyes.

"Your eyes are going to dry out," she said softly. She stepped closer, hands reaching out. Using on the barest touch of her fingertips, she closed Reflex's eyelids. Her vision went black, but the sting that had been building up since she was poisoned started to disappear.

But now she couldn't see; there was little she could do, unseeing and paralyzed.

A sharp buzzing filled the room, the same one from the beginning. She would have flinched if she could move. The same man's voice who had started their fight in the Arena came on, announcing in a dull, dead voice.

"Please reclaim FPD10 and CC01 immediately." It cut off as soon as it had started, leaving Reflex in dead silence. Her ears were pinned backward, unable to pick up any sounds other than the ones directly around her, her greatest skill stopped. She couldn't see either, just the blackness of her eyelids. And feeling was restricted to the dirt below her and the grass rubbing against her fur.

Neon's voice met her ears. "They're coming to pick you up." And then she was gone, and Reflex could hear soft footsteps padding away. They got quieter and quieter until they were gone.

But in only a few seconds, hands thick with fur landed on her shoulders. They gripped her tightly, tiny pinpricks of claws meeting her skin. She wanted to struggle, to move. But she was paralyzed.

Frozen.

Helpless.

The Eraser - for that was what she assumed it was - carried her away from the thick and complicated scents of the Arena to the burning sterile sting of the hallways.

But her eyes were forcibly closed, her ears pinned so far backward they could hear very little, and there was little to smell now.

She could hear Eraser stepping, and his big paws thumping against the ground sent tremors up her spine. It walked seemingly without end, marching on and on. She had never remembered the path being this long.

Suddenly, her right ear twitched. It smacked against her head roughly, but it she could barely feel it. But it was what had happened that excited her. The poison was wearing off!

The Eraser carrying her paused for a second, its body stilling. Reflex furiously tried to move, but only her right ear was moving, and sluggishly at that. But it was an unending series of twitching that went on and on.

Suddenly she was moving again, the Eraser jerking her forward in short, sharp bursts. He was jogging, rushing her forward. Her ear moved quicker now, the left beginning to twitch. The tip of her tail brushed against her leg, sliding slightly back and forth.

She was being dashed forward, shoved forward in powerful motions. The Eraser's claws were digging into her skin, and she could feel one of them break the skin on her arm.

But now her claws were twitching out, half protruding from her paws. She started to try to struggle, furiously trying to force her body to twist side to side. She was moving, too. Her chest rolled slightly, pushing one of the Eraser's hands away.

But she could hear a metal bang, a sudden stop in speed. She jerked forward, almost moving out of the Eraser's grip. A sliver of light appeared at the bottom of her eyes, bright and blinding.

She stopped for a second, not moving. The motions that had gotten her through the hallways halted, and she was frozen, only the Eraser's furry arms that pressed against her back.

And then she was tumbling, pitched forward through the air. She landed with a _crunch_ on a harsh, unforgiving surface so cold it burned against her chest. A metal clang echoed behind her.

When she came fully back to movability an hour later, she was locked inside of a tiny cage in a cold empty room.

 **And the second chapter is done! Yeah!**

 **So while I've only used one OC so far, Neon, the next chapter will have many,** _ **many**_ **OCs that will be in the story. So now is your chance to submit! Review here or in my SYOC page.**

 **Also, I will be adding any OCs I'd like to see in my story on my other story. People don't have to make them, but they're there for inspiration if anyone needs it!**

 **Frost OUT!**


	3. Chapter 3

Reflex scraped her claws through one of the scratches on the ground, digging deeper through the cold metal. It made her ears burn when it released a horrible scratching sound that made her flatten her ears to the back of her head. She didn't stop, futilely pawing at the metal on the ground. There was little she could do in this cage that held her, and anything to do was a blessing to keep her from going mad. She hissed softly, baring her fangs at the metal floor.

It didn't respond. She went back to clawing it.

She paused, claws on her hand instinctively sliding out a little more. Her ears flicked towards the door, her head soon following, cocking it to one side. Pounding was echoing through the building, growing louder and louder as time passed.

Reflex hissed softly, shifting so she was resting on her knees. The rest of her claws slid out, the pads on her paws settling on the metal of her cage. Her tail rested on her thighs, the black tuft on the end twitching. Sharp fangs peeked out from her lips as she bared them.

The pounding reached the loudest it had been, before suddenly stopping. There was only silence. Her ears strained towards the door, her body weight shifting towards the door.

It was then that she heard the alarm.

It was soft, muffled by the thick metal door that blocked off her room. But the blaring scream that sounded every few seconds couldn't be ignored anymore once she had heard it. She tensed more and more, her arms straining with the force she was tightening them with. All of the fur on her body puffed out, pushing on the white clothes she was wearing.

The door began to _hiss_ open, metal surface sliding into the wall on the other side. She stared across the room at it, pale eyes narrowed and fangs bared.

It opened completely and an Eraser charged into the room. Its eyes were wild, fur mussed up and muscles bound and tense. It waited only a second before darting towards her cage.

Reflex spun backward, claws shooting up to flash in front of her face. She hissed as threateningly as she could, pressing her back to the bars on the back of her cage.

But it simply reached down and ripped open the cage door.

The metal bars were flung wide, leaving an open gap. The Eraser bent down slightly, jerking its paw toward the door. It had bloodshot, wild eyes that flicked to every corner of the room.

"Run!" It howled, pulling away from the cage. It started toward the door again, moving in a strange, thumping pace. It spoke again. "Run!"

Reflex needed no other encouragement. She tore out of the cage, slamming it on its side with her rush. Her paws thudded against the ground, shooting her forward. The door was next to her, and then it was behind her, and she was without her restraints and chains and muzzle.

She was free.

Her eyes caught sight of the Eraser rushing into the room next to where she had been, the pad next to the door pulsing a light green. She heard it shout the same thing it had to her, before it's powerful footsteps shot it out of the room and into the next.

As she scanned the hallway on both sides of her, she could see open doors and green pads everywhere, the rooms inside dark.

And she could see mutants.

One was poking its head out of the door the Eraser had just opened, with bright blonde hair and giant horns that emerged from the top of her head. She paused for only a second before starting to move.

Several others were also running, following the path of the hallway and going in any direction. They had wings, scales, fur, claws, and horns.

They were like her!

The Eraser emerged again from another room, darting in and out with powerful steps. Mutants came out from each room, confused but determined.

Reflex realized she was frozen in the middle of the hallway, eyes wide and claws out. She shot her eyes over to the Eraser, watching as it pointed wildly in one direction before going back into another room. The mutants who had escaped took instant note of that and ran.

She took off down the way it had pointed, pads tearing at the metal and slippery floors. At least she was lucky with her mutation; a mutant running beside her tripped, the scales on his body sliding over the metal. She ran on, jumping over his prone form even as he struggled to stand again. Her pads gripped the floor easily.

Reflex could hear the thumps of other mutants behind her, feel the air racing past her as she ran as fast as her paws would allow. Her ears were tucked back, streamlined against her head. The short sandy tail whipped around behind her, keeping her balance as she turned around the sharp corners the hallways were full of. This was nothing like any of the tests she had been through, instead here she was running for her life, for her freedom. The group of the mutants turned around another corner, going almost faster as the time went on.

Her ears shot forward and she slowed, eyes widening. Around the corner she and the other mutants had just turned was a group of people. A group of people that were carrying the mind that had created them and weapons meant to stop them.

Whitecoats.

Both of the groups froze, stilling to form two different walls on either side of the hallway. The mutants tensed, claws extending and mutations flashing. They bared their teeth and prepared to fight.

The whitecoats were taller, well fed and confident. The hands that clenched stun guns shot up to aim at them, careful position setting them directly between their eyes. The group of whitecoats, around nine, cocked the barrel. Their eyes narrowed.

And then a mutant struck.

She was small with a bright red tail, but her growl was as loud as a lion when she sprung at one of the whitecoats. He was too surprised to shoot, and she slammed into his chest.

The two of them toppled over, the whitecoat's head hitting the ground and not moving. The mutant hissed and moved her feet to spring again, before another whitecoat nailed her. She collapsed to the ground, twitching slightly. Her chest rose weakly, still breathing.

The whitecoats turned towards the rest of them, stun guns pointed and aimed. But the mutants were already lunging.

The first row darted forward, propelling forth with wings and claws and sheer will.

Reflex snarled and ran towards a whitecoat near one of the sides, claws extending in front of her. The woman shrieked, firing the gun in a wild spin. A mutant on Reflex's side fell, thudding against the ground.

She pushed off against the ground as hard as she could and sprang towards the whitecoat, paws slamming into her chest. The whitecoat toppled, stun gun flying from her hand.

Reflex pushed off the woman, almost tripping over her still figure. Her tail shot out to reclaim her balance and she ran, shooting down the hallway. There were a few mutants in front of her and more behind, hundreds of paws slamming against the ground. The cries of the whitecoats had all but disappeared, but the alarm was blaring louder and louder as they went on.

And then there was light, streams of powerful light shooting towards her. She squeezed her eyes shut, blinded, but mutants pushed at her back and she was shot forward, coming to in front of a pair of glass doors. The world outside was full of flaring colors, so different from the pale whites and grays they were surrounded in.

The mutant in front of her, one with blood red eyes that were half lidded with the light slammed her shoulder into the door, rebounding from the effort. She did it again, forcing it open. One door slipped out until it was fully open, letting light and sounds and smells into the group of mutants.

And then they charged outside.

All of them were on the lookout, eyes and ears scanning all of their surroundings. A girl to Reflex's side was flicking her tongue out, tasting the air. She looked around at what they were faced with.

Trees, so much larger than the ones in the Arena, surrounded them on every side, covered in blinding greens of every shade imaginable. The ground they were on was cobbled, covered in tiny stones so different then she had ever seen before.

Sunlight hit them, reflecting off their pale and sun deprived skin. Reflex shuddered, eyes closing as she felt the warmth and world that surrounded her. Her fur ruffled in a small wind, something she had never felt before.

Then a howled scream came from one of the mutants, and they were running, running, running. Paws hit hers and furry and scaly bodies pressed against hers, pushing her forward in a motion that barely let her stay upright. Others fell beside her, trampled beneath the fleeing mutants.

Reflex risked a glance back, even as her paws slammed into the ground and fear made her fur stand straight it.

Erasers. So many of them she was finding it hard to see the building where she had come from. Their perfect faces were marred with a hideous snarl and their eyes were narrowed in fury.

She yowled, turning around and darting off the path to join the throng of mutants that pounded through the trees. Branches pulled at her and leaves snapped against her ears, the pain shooting through her body unable to break adrenaline's hold.

The sounds of bones breaking and angry, pained cries of the Erasers as they shifted echoed behind her, turning into strange wolf-like creatures that could kill any mutant they came across. She bit back a cry and ran faster.

She heard a _whoosh_ and saw a trio of mutants with wings shoot into the sky, powerfully pumping their wings to go far, far away. Glancing down at her claws, she saw them fully extended and flashing in the sun.

She could use her mutation, too.

Waiting until she had darted around a thick tree to get out of the sight of the Erasers, she went back to the fight in the Arena and launched herself at the tree's trunk.

Claws digging into the surface, she pushed with her paws against the ground to force her way up. She shot herself up the trunk and attached them to a tall branch only several feet off the floor. Her weight pulled down at her, almost dislodging her claws until she wrenched herself up. She pulled herself onto the branch before launching herself up even higher, claws grappling for purchase on the bark. Her back paws hooked onto a higher branch than the one she was standing on and she pushed off, wrapping her arms around the wood and flipping herself until she was perched on top of the branch.

Tucking herself closer to the branch, she peered over the edge with frightened, wide eyes. Mutants roared past the tree, moving together in large hoard. None of them seemed to know where they were going, just darting through the forest at a speed most of them had never traveled before at. The majority of them were gone, using their mutations to escape. But after only a second, she sucked in a hissed breath as a certifiable _wall_ of Erasers charged towards them, fur clumped and tongues lolling.

Reflex could only stay frozen, claws embedded in the wood, and try to pin her ears back to avoid the pained screams of the mutants that were too slow.

But finally the sounds grew quieter, and the Eraser's grunts and howls disappeared altogether. Reflex was left in a tree, frozen and terrified and stuck in the outside world for the first time in her life.

She looked around, preparing to climb to the ground to run far, far away from the place that did this to here. But when she looked across to peer at another tree, her eyes met another pair of amber iris'.

 **And now I can start writing outside of the School! Most of the group of mutants will be revealed in the next chapter, but they are not set in stone yet! So now is the moment to submit!**

 **I'm sorry it took me a while, I just came back to school from winter break and didn't have nearly as much free time.**

 **Please review!**

 **Frost OUT!**


	4. Chapter 4

Reflex froze. The thing with the amber eyes froze as well.

It was on a branch, pressed against the trunk. It wasn't moving, but it was on all fours. The shadows covered it, draping over it like a blanket. She couldn't see anything on it but the eyes.

But Reflex knew that orange amber color that filled its eyes. It was the same that Erasers' had, the burning gold amber that showed they were either transformed or close to it. And here she was, stuck in a tree with an Eraser who could see her. She briefly considered inching backward to jump out of the tree, but the Eraser could leap down in a second and be upon her without a second's hesitation.

A soft growl spread throughout the trees, very deep. Reflex flinched, staring back at the amber eyes. She knew from her first fight in the Arena that staring into some animal's eyes meant they took it as a challenge. She wasn't going down without a fight.

But it was then that she noticed the pupils.

They weren't the round black things that Erasers had, ones that took up most of their eye. Instead, these were thin, like cuts across the eyes. Slitted pupils.

She had slitted pupils.

The shape was still frozen, but Reflex angled her head ever so slightly to catch more light to let her see through the shadows. And then she saw the clothing, dirty and muddy as it was, it still had the blinding white color she knew well.

The shape across of her was a mutant.

Hesitantly, claws fully unsheathing and digging into the tree and ears flicking every which way, Reflex steadied herself both mentally and physically. Then she started to crawl out of the shadows on her branch. The light hit her like a literal weight, the new feeling strange and unnatural.

She couldn't go very far, the branch she was on not very thick or long, but it was enough. The light bullied its way through the leaves to hit her head and let her caracal features to be seen. Licking her lips with her sandpaper tongue, she let her ears extend up from where they had been close to flattened across her skull. They waved slightly in the wind, identifying her as something definitely not Eraser or whitecoat. And then she waited.

There was a pause that seemed to drag on for hours, her eyes narrowing when the shape didn't move. Her hind legs tensed, ready to jump to the ground, when the owner of the amber eyes slowly came into the light. It moved slowly, as if testing its weight against the branch. Its eyes never strayed from her face.

It was a mutant, she could tell that almost immediately. And it was something hadn't ever seen up close; another cat mutant, like her. It that had escaped into the trees like her and, looking closer, she could see claw marks ripped into the bark of the tree that it was perched on.

It was a boy as well, which she glossed over quickly before returning to what she could see of his face.

Tan fur, much lighter and thicker than her own, covered his face, with small black spots around the edges of his face. His fur was slightly thicker than her fur, almost fluffy, but she could see that there was less overall. Her fur covered every square inch of her, and she knew that that was because she had so much caracal DNA in her. This mutant didn't seem to have nearly as much as 11%.

The eyes were surrounded by thick black lines that circled around his eyelashes before stretching out to part of his face. And then she saw his ears; giant, pointy things that poked out from his shaggy brown hair. They were shorter than hers but no less amazing. Cat ears!

She hissed softly across the gap between them, cat ears twitching on her head. Her instincts were going wild inside of her, crazed by the sight of someone like her. He nodded slowly, hissing back at her. His hiss was a bit lower than hers, but they both understood what it meant. He had the same fangs as she did, though they didn't appear to show when his mouth was closed, unlike hers.

"I go by Ace." His voice was rough from disuse, but it had the slight undertone rumbling that was in hers. One ear flicking back, he settled on his haunches. A _crack_ echoed from his neck when he rolled it.

"Animal?" She asked, claws slowly pulling back into her paws. The wood between them was twisted and mangled, covered in deep marks that were as deep as an inch. She mirrored his motion and went to the more comfortable position.

Ace cocked his head to one side, ears twitching softly. Then his eyes widened and he nodded. "Serval," he said back. "You?"

"Caracal. I go by Reflex." She eyed up Ace's branch, which was only a few feet away from hers. It was thick, but covered in the same claw marks that were on her own. Watching Ace's hands, she could see the barest hint of claws poking out from beneath the light dusting of fur on them.

He nodded, but they were both staring rather awkwardly at each other. Reflex ducked her head, staring at the ground below them. She couldn't stay in the trees forward; the Erasers' would come back and she couldn't trick them twice by being in a tree. Her smell - and Ace's would send them shooting right up onto their branch to kill them.

Her back legs tensed, eyes boring into the ground. She straightened slightly, putting her feet beneath her. Then, with a deep breath, she jumped off the branch and onto the ground.

The impact sent waves of shock shooting up her legs, but she stuck her arms out and kept her balance. Her feet had sunk a half an inch into the softer dirt, and she pulled them out, the pads on her feet twinged.

A _thump_ echoed next to her and she yelped, claws extending. She spun around to face whatever had happened.

It was Ace, staring at her almost sheepishly. He too had jumped down from the tree, landing a bit too close for comfort next to her.

"What are you doing?" She whispered to him, the forest seeming much more alive and deadly when she was on the ground. Her ears were flicking wildly, and she couldn't make them stop if she wanted to.

Ace bit his lip softly, fangs pressing into the surface but not breaking it. "I want to come with you," he offered up. Reflex cocked her head in confusion. He continued, ears pressing lower and lower to his head.

"Neither of us have any experience in the wild. We both won't make it very long; we'll either be killed by Erasers or die of starvation or something."

Reflex nodded, understanding it even if she didn't want to. It was a worrying thought; make it out of the School only to die by not being able to survive out of there.

"But if we work together, we'll make it longer. One of us can hunt while the other defends, and then we can survive, even if only for a little longer." As he spoke, Ace's shoulders hunched in slightly on himself, but his amber eyes were still staring up at her, full of determination. "I don't want to die unless I can't do anything about it."

Reflex couldn't do much but stare at the impressive speech she had just been given. It had been something he must have just thought up, but it filled her with hope, and she couldn't ever turn him away after that.

"Let's go then, Ace."She said softly, offering him a hand. He took after a second, both of their pads hitting each other. She smiled at him through a mouth of fangs.

Ace turned, looking over the ground. His ears were up and he was sniffing the air, searching for the Erasers. It was then that Reflex noticed he was missing something.

"Where's your tail?" She asked, head tilting to one side. Her own short tail flicked around to her front, swishing by her hip. Ace sighed unhappily, straightening up to face her.

"I'm only 6% Serval," he explained. "That wasn't enough for a tail."

Reflex bowed her head slightly, tilting it away. She joined in his search for the Erasers' footprints, back tingling. Her tail was part of her; she couldn't imagine not having one.

It wasn't that hard to tell which way the Erasers' had gone; their giant pawprints and indents of claws were marked deeply into the ground. Jumbled among them were the lighter prints of mutants, some embedded with claw points of scale marks or even webbed feet. She turned to one side, going into the forest and away from the tamed path. The Erasers' hadn't gone this way, so if they moved quickly they could be gone before they came back.

"Reflex?" A soft voice startled her, jerking her into full wariness. Her fur bristled and her tail shot out, fangs bared. Reflex hissed loudly, ears jerking from side to side to try and find out what had spoken. Ace tightened next to her, ears pinned back and claws extended.

A black shape was positioned up on a tree off to one side, clinging a way up the trunk. It was inching down, placing one foot below the other. Reflex felt her muscles tense for every inch the shape lowered itself.

Then the glimpse of blonde curly hair caught her vision, and soon the blinding white clothing of mutants. It was scuffed and dirty around the edges, but still noticeable. Not an Eraser. She relaxed, but only minutely.

It was then that the blue and yellow spots etched onto the mutant's skin came to light that she cocked her head, confused.

"Neon?" She asked softly, inching out farther on her branch to catch another sight of the poisonous mutant.

The girl's black eyes widened, and she tucked herself closer to the tree. Reflex could see her fingers and toes pressed to the surface of the bark, but she wasn't falling. She had attached herself to the tree without claws. Reflex cocked her head, staring intently at the girl's hands.

Neon nodded slowly, inching further down the tree, coming to rest only a foot or so above the ground. She was tucked incredibly close to bark as if she was trying to mold herself to it.

Ace had jumped back, startled, when Neon had spoken and come into the light. He was leaning over to her tree, face turned towards hers. His nose twitched rapidly.

Suddenly his mouth drew up in a wince, and he moved slightly back. Eyes scrunched and closed, he asked her "Poisonous?"

Neon nodded again, though he couldn't see her. "Yes." Her eyes were averted and down to the side, but her posture was alert and her head flicked in each direction every few seconds.

Ace sucked in a hissed breath, but he shook himself roughly, letting the light fur dusted over his body puff out. He looked both directions, but nothing else seemed to catch his attention.

Reflex hissed, in the same manner she had to Ace, head turned towards Neon. Slowly she padded forward, claws slightly returning to her paws.

Neon stuck to the shadows of her tree, but she didn't move away. Her black eyes flicked over Reflex, before she pushed suddenly off the tree and came to meet the ground. She scanned the area around her, but there was nothing that leapt out at her.

"I'd like to join you too." She said quietly. Her attention was fixed on Ace, eyes partially closed as if she could still hear his speech. "I'm very good at defending."

She held up one arm, bringing the pale splotches over her body to better light. Reflex nodded, a slight memory of being paralyzed flitting to the surface of her mind.

Yes, she was all too aware of how good Neon was at defending.

"So we're together?" Ace asked suddenly. "Two cats and one poisonous mutant?" He grinned at them, fangs peeking out through his lips. "I wonder how this is going to turn out."

Reflex couldn't help but smile.

* * *

 **And here is the next chapter! Here are three of the five to six characters that will be in the main group. These are the only three that have been set in stone, but the rest are still up to you!**

 **Quick note; if you really like another character that someone else made, you can vote for the character! I will take those OCs more seriously, so that's always a good idea!**

 **Please review!**

 **Frost OUT!**


	5. Chapter 5

It was only about a few minutes into the forest that Reflex realized she had no idea where she was going.

The trees had no path to follow; instead, they were ripping branches away from their bodies and charging through the brush. There were no hallways, no open doorways. She didn't quite know what to do now.

Oh, she had imagined her escape; what mutant hadn't? In vivid detail every time she was thrown back in her cage with a new array of injuries.

She'd first snap off the bars to her cage and slam it open, freeing her path. She'd deal with the door somehow; maybe clawing right through it. She'd run down the halls, defeating any Eraser or whitecoat in her path. Then she'd bust out the doors and _not get lost_.

That had been the plan. She wasn't exactly following it.

Though her claws and fangs were free, no constraining muzzle or metal coverings over her paws. It was wonderful to feel her feet press into the ground and know that she wasn't here to fight another mutant.

Though she was also hyper-aware of the two behind her. The only time she had seen another mutant for more than a minute was when she was launching herself out a tree to attack them.

Servals and caracals weren't enemies, per say, but that didn't mean they were _friends_. No even including the fact that she was also human. A human who had been raised in the literal definition of hell and had only had contact with others in a place where it was hurt or be hurt. Having two equally dangerous mutants behind her was unnerving.

Ace was walking along rather normally, furry arms swinging by his side. His ears were smaller than her own giants but were no less active, swiveling this way and that without seeming to ever stop. His fangs peeked out from between his lips, giving him the eery appearance of grinning when he wasn't.

She had noticed herself flicking one ear partially to the side or twitching the black tufts of fur on top more than once. She knew from the whitecoats study of her that caracals communicated through movements of their ears, sometimes more often than normal body language or noises. But Ace was part serval, not caracal, and she had politely told her ears to shut up.

Neon was quiet as ever, but so were they. Her arms were tucked close to her and she didn't let them stray too far from her body. But her black eyes were alert, flicking from tree to tree. Reflex had thought about opening her mouth to talk to her but had decided against it.

The trees around then were all the same type. She had noticed that quickly. In the Arena, every tree had a different bark and leaves and smell, and each of their heights and sizes varied. But here, outside of the building, each of the trees were in the same group. All dark brown bark, bright green leaves, shorter height.

But the _smells_ …

Reflex didn't think she'd been more confused in her life.

There were scents of everything and anything nearby. Gone were the sterile, burning tastes of the hallways. Now there was the smell of water, of trees. Of leaves crumpled on the ground to a squirrel that had been where she was standing recently.

She hadn't even mentioned the sounds. Her ears should have rightfully exploded from everything she was hearing by now. The rustle of a leaf seemed directly in front of her, despite being many feet away.

In all of her dreams of escaping, she had never thought she'd experience such a cultural shock.

If the way of life in the building could be considered a culture, that was.

Ace spoke up, his rumbling voice so similar to hers jerking her out of her thoughts. He pointed with one clawed finger toward something to the right.

"Do you think we should rest for a bit? Refresh, get our bearings?"

Reflex turned towards the spot he was talking about. The trees thinned out slightly, and it made way to a thick stream or water. It curved out in a bend that ran right next to their makeshift path they were cutting through the woods. It was a merry little stream, with a few rocks that the water splashed over. It wasn't very deep but the water was glistening.

And there was so _much_ of it.

She let out a tired nod, feeling the walking they had been doing and the wild run from the Erasers. Her legs burned something fierce and she wished for the chill of the water.

Ace grinned toothily at her, fangs extending farther over his front lip. He turned towards the river, finding a half flat spot and shooting towards it.

Neon, however, hung back, eyeing up the water with one of her pure black eyes. Reflex caught a glimpse of the poisonous spots over her skin and knew her sandy red fur was prickling up. She forced herself to take a deep breath, her fur calming back to lie flat on her skin. Her animal instincts were screaming louder than they had during any battle. She took a step forward and made her growling equivalent to clearing her throat.

Neon jumped, turning to her. Her curly blonde hair was frazzled, and Reflex barely noticed a hint of blue in it. She stared deeper and found that at the very roots of her hair there was a thin blue mark. Her hair was turning blue. Ignoring the sudden urge to laugh, Reflex gestured toward the stream.

"Are you going to drink?" She asked curiously. She wasn't that thirsty. Caracals were a desert cat, after all, and she'd heard they had evolved to not need much water. That didn't mean she'd pass up the opportunity for open water, and she had noticed her attention slipping over to it.

Neon looked over at the water, before helplessly gesturing to her arms. More importantly, to the colour blotches on them.

Reflex nodded, mouth a bit dryer than before. "Ah."

"Yeah," she said softly, hands wringing themselves. She stared at the water, and then at Ace. The cat mutant was on all fours, face stretched only half an inch above the water. A pink tongue darted out to lap at the water, sending tiny ripples over the water.

"Just go downstream," Reflex suggested. The fur on the back of her ears was jutting up, which, given her current mood, she took to mean as amusement. Ace looked very funny, even though she doubted she'd look any different when she went to drink.

Neon nodded, feet pattering slightly against the ground. She went a ways from Ace before kneeling down to drink. Her feet planted themselves on the rock with a suction sound, and Reflex couldn't stop the curious tilt of her head. But Neon ignored it, settling herself in a more comfortable position. She went to cup her hands before stopping, bringing them away from the water. She lowered her head and began to just drink straight from it.

Reflex walked up the river, her nose twitching. She went a bit below Ace on the stream, right in between him and Neon. She knelt down as well and instantly had her tongue slide out without any thought from her. Her cheeks heating up ever so slightly, she began to lap at the water. It was cool, with a slight aftertaste that was different from the water they got at the building. More rich. More real. Her tail wagged slightly, swaying back and forth to help her keep her balance. She picked her paws up and down, not liking the feeling of mud against her fur. A wind blew across her nose.

A hiss exploded from around them. In an instant, all three of them were sitting up. Cat ears were swiveling wildly, claws unsheathing. Neon was slowly pushing herself to first her knees and then her feet, crouched low and unmoving. She rocked slightly, shifting her weight.

Reflex's tail shot out, pin straight as she slowly stood up. Her ears were buzzing with how fast they moving, and waves upon waves of smells were brought through her nose. Ten claws dug into the ground, ripping up the soft soil next to the stream bank. Her fur stood up on.

But it was Ace who let out a quietly hissed breath and pointed slightly upriver. Neon and Reflex snapped to point that way.

It was a girl. She had dark, dark skin, different that Neon's or Ace's or hers. Her hair was long and black, tumbling down her back in a twisted way that made ends stick out in every direction. Her eyes were wide and a bright hazel.

But her pupils were slitted, and the teeth she was baring at them were not teeth but fangs.

There was a patch of scales twisting across her neck and spreading slightly into her face, a dark brown with her throat a more yellow colour. It stopped right in the middle of her left cheek, thick brown scales seamlessly up against her skin. They gleamed in the light like metal. Her hiss was unending, low and dangerous. Reflex's instincts were telling her she was trespassing and it was in her best interests to get off of the other animal's land, preferably now.

Neither side moved, the only sounds the hiss of the girl and the wind in the leaves.

Then Ace stepped forward, letting the light hit his features. "Hello?" he offered, ears snapping directly towards her. The girl's hissing shut off immediately, and she cocked her head slightly. Her eyes darted from Ace's ears to Reflex's fur-covered face to Neon's pitch black eyes. Both of them also put themselves in the light, Reflex's ears pinned back against her skull.

The girl's shoulders relaxed slightly, falling back. Strangely enough, her neck seemed to deflate some, shrinking back to a more regular size, though Reflex hadn't noticed it expanding. The fangs in her mouth folded, extending back into her mouth until they looked much smaller and more human.

"Mutants?" She asked. Her voice was strange. It wasn't the rumbling, growl-like tone that both Reflex and Ace had, but a softer, more smooth accent. The words were longer, and the 's's more pronounced.

Ace grinned at her and held up one handful of his bright white clothing that they were all wearing. "Mutants."

"I'm Ophia." She said, eyes flicking to the stream of water. Reflex realized that she was poised right over the flowing stream like she was about to drink. They had both interrupted each other's drink, she thought wryly. But the girl was also looking over at them, and how all three were standing very close to the water. Her brow furrowed slightly, hazel eyes half lidded.

"Reflex." She said, putting a hand on her chest.

"I'm Ace." He said, a hand coming across his stomach. He stared her right in the eyes, and Reflex saw a hint of Ophia's lip tweak up.

"Neon." She said quietly, subconsciously tucking up her white clothes to partially hide the blue and yellow splotches over her throat. Ophia's eyes snapped to it before she grinned slightly. She opened her mouth and stuck a finger in, fiddling with her teeth for a second. They started to extend, stretching out until they were infinitely bigger than Ace's or Reflex's. She gave a punctual hiss, and a splattering of drops soared out from her teeth. They smacked into a tree and stayed there. Reflex could smell the burning smell of poison, a thousand times stronger than Neon's normal smell.

"King Cobra." Ophia grinned again, her fangs retreating.

They stood frozen for a second, each staring at each other before Ophia slowly lowered herself back to the water. It broke the ice and soon everyone was kneeling again, slurping up the water available.

When they were all done, Ophia had crept closer until they were all evenly spaced apart. Still kneeling, she swayed slightly back and forward, weight shifting uneasily.

"Want to travel together?" Ace offered. "We've got no idea where we're going and aren't sure how to get there, but we've got company."

Ophia cracked a grin. "Love to."

* * *

 **Hey! Look who's not dead!**

 **(It's me!)**

 **I'm sorry guys who patiently waited for an update. I took a reality check for a while, as I have recently started to work on a novel. I hope to have it published within a year or two. While that may seem a long time to people, it's amazing compared to where I was a year ago.**

 **So my rule is that I will work on this story after I have written a thousand words on my story. So the updates will probably be farther in between. Sorry!**

 **Please read and review!**

 **Frost OUT!**


	6. Chapter 6

The forest was just as strange and new as it was before they had collected the snake girl.

They were walking again, this time following the stream. It had been Ophia's idea; she had already been doing it when she found the group. A steady source of water was useful in a desperate streak away from the building and the Erasers inside.

It gurgled happily, splashing over the rocks in its path. Sometimes it widened to the point where Reflex didn't know whether she would be able to jump across it. She knew she could jump high, though she wasn't sure how far she could. Ace had easily bounded over the river to pick up a stone, barely looking at the jump. The stream had been at least thirteen feet across.

Reflex had taken to staring around at the world around her, trying to remember everything only to forget it at the sight of a new bush or plant. It was all so _different_ out here, unlike the matching white hallways she had been born to.

Ace looked just as bewildered as her, his fur fluffed up. She wanted to touch it, to see if it was as soft as hers but had pulled back. She didn't just go around touching other's fur, no matter that she felt her instincts pushing her to do it. His nose twitched endlessly. Ace was tossing a stone up and down, catching it in his hand. She jerked her head away, focusing back on their journey away from the building.

Their desperate track through the forest wasn't ending up to be that desperate. The fear of the Erasers loomed high over them and the horrors of the building were nowhere near gone, but the initial fear had gone away.

At first, Reflex had wanted to run and to keep running until the wind was ripped from her chest and she couldn't breathe. But slowly, her wish had changed to a jog, then a walk. Ace and Neon, who had been with her right from the start of their escape, had gone from the same journey from fast to slow. She hadn't understood at first what was going on but it had quickly hit her.

They were tired.

Reflex knew she was. Not just from the running, either. Only some time before her cage had been unlocked and everything she had ever known had been destroyed, she had been in a training exercise. The whitecoat that took care of her had strapped circles to her arms and legs, ripping out portions of her fur to do so. The missing patches prickle when she thought of them. Then she had been forced to run and run and run on something that hadn't let her stop, even though she wasn't moving forward. A running machine; they had called it a treadmill.

She didn't even know how many other mutants had been trained before they had escaped. Many others might have had bleeding wounds or ripped muscles but still ran as hard as they could to escape the building.

And that was why they weren't running; they didn't have to.

There were thousands of mutants on the escape. Three - well, now four - mutants whose only purpose was to fight in the Arena weren't going to be high on the list to recapture. The ones with real importance to the whitecoats would be sought after first.

Sure, Reflex could shift - it was her proudest gift, and she treasured it. As far as she knew, there were no others that could do that. But she had heard stories, stories of mutants that could bend air to their will and alter the earth beneath them with a single cleave of their claws. The Erasers could all shift, completely. She wasn't _that_ important. Bending her spine into position wasn't that special.

A pale green eye flicked to the mutants next to her. Were any of these the mutants she had heard about? Her gaze shot to all of them.

Neon, at least, she had an idea. Her poison was anything but ordinary, even if she was a poison dart frog. It must have been enhanced in some way, though she didn't know how.

Ophia was quiet and new. Reflex knew little about her other than what she had learned from watching her. She kept her arms, one with a long, spidery patch of scales down it, to herself, tucked up against her body. The King Cobra mutant walked strangely, too. Reflex had never seen her walk in a straight line, instead swaying back and forth. It was confusing but also hypnotic to watch, and Reflex had found her eyes drawn to it before.

Ace was, well, Ace. He was loud, but in a subtle way. He had a word or a sentence or a paragraph to throw into the conversation whenever it was too quiet but other than that he would walk in silence like the rest of them. She didn't quite know what to think about him, or what sort of power he might have.

Reflex didn't quite know how she felt around these mutants. Safer; definitely. There were two mutants with poison or venom, one even had long range attacks. Another was feline, just like her.

It was better company than the cages she had lived in.

But then again, a whitecoat would have been better than the empty room with its never ending chill.

Reflex growled, flicking her paw out to one side. Mud was everywhere in these woods; it seemed to latch onto her like a living creature. He had quickly found that she despised mud with a burning passion.

A branch caught her attention. It was darker than the others around it, and while she stared at it, she realized it wasn't even attached to the tree. It was simply hanging in the leaves. There was a tiny green bauble on the end, something shiny. She wanted to reach up and grab it but made herself keep walking forward, past the stick.

She heard a loud thump and muffled grumblings from behind her, and turned to see Ace hopping on one paw, holding the other. The rock he had been tossing up and down laid on the ground next to him.

"It just slipped right out of my hand!" He complained, setting down his paw. He shook his hands as if dirt were on them, fixing the rock with a glare. He bent down to pick up again, but it seemed to phase right through his hand and tumble on the path again. Ace seemed to bite back a snarl, instead rearing back one foot and kicking the stone. It spun away, hurtling through the woods.

Reflex turned back to the trees, a wide grin spread across her face. Ace seemed to drop things faster than he picked them up. She wondered if it was normal or if that was what his power was; losing his grip on whatever he had.

But while she had been thinking, the stream they had been following darted to one side, and she blindingly turned with it. But her ears snapped forward not a second later, catching an undercurrent of voices. She stopped dead in her tracks.

A body collided with hers, knocking her forward a step. She froze, fearing Neon's touch, but then fur brushed against hers and a male voice complained "Reflex!"

"Shh," she hissed out to them. Her ears pricked forward, each moving differently to capture the most sound. "Don't you hear that?"

Ace groaned, his fangs snapping against each other. "I wouldn't know," he grumbled, rubbing his shoulder. "I don't have foot long ears." But he stopped talking after that, curiously peeking over her shoulder. But the only thing in front of her were more trees.

"Quiet." Reflex leaned closer forward. There were a few trees around her, but only a few feet to her right through a gap in the trees, she could see a sliver of open grass. They were only inches from a field.

By now Ace's ears were snapped forward, fixed in the same direction as hers. They twitched incessantly, as of a fly had landed on them. He flicked one hand up, pointing towards the tree layer that separated them from the voices. Reflex could see out of the corner of her eye Neon and Ophia tensing, turning towards the trees. The sharp smell from Neon that burned her nose increased, her poison growing more potent. Ophia's snake fangs extended, shooting a bit out of her mouth. She hissed softly.

Ophia started to move, slowly. Her feet pressed into the ground softly, and when she lifted them up Reflex could see the imprint of scales for both footprints. The mutant crept forward another foot or so before carefully peering around the base of the tree.

There was a loud shout, one not from Ophia, before she was yanked around the side of the tree.

Reflex couldn't stop the screech that escaped her lips. She jumped forward, hind paws slamming into the ground. Claws out, fangs bared, she whirled around the corner and came face to face with a girl.

One with fair skin and a splatter of freckles across her nose. She had the brightest red hair Reflex had ever seen, one that bounced around her head in loose curls. She grinned at Reflex, showing teeth much sharper than a human's.

Reflex scrambled backward, keenly aware of Ace and Neon charging out behind her.

The girl simply looked at her through one green and one brown eye, before her gaze finally snapped to the fur covering Reflex. Her face broke out in a grin.

She turned her head sideways, allowing Reflex a quick glimpse of brownish red scales marching their way up her neck. "Another one!" She shouted. The fangs she had were eerily similar to Ophia's, in the same thin way with dangerous points. Ophia was standing only a bit off to the side, one of the girl's hands tight on her wrist. But she wasn't struggling, only looking around her with wide eyes and an open mouth.

Reflex peered around the girl, intent on finding whomever she had just called to. But what met her eyes was unbelievable.

There was a field, much smaller than she had expected. She could see the trees on the other side, seemingly much larger than the ones next to her. In the middle she could see structures, made of branches and leaves. Some were grouped together and others were separate.

But then there were the mutants.

A girl with dull red ears and a bushy tail ran past them, sprinting around the edge of the field. A boy with small white wings on his back was laying around in the center, twitching white ears on top of his head. A girl with large brown ears on the side of her head was standing by the structures, seemingly talking with someone inside. Those were only the first that Reflex could pick out. There were more in the air, on the ground, even in a pond of water she could make out near the trees. They were _everywhere._

The girl grinned at her gobsmacked expression, showing her fangs retreating back into her mouth. She flicked her red hair back, and Reflex could see the same reddish scales traveling from her wrist up to her shoulder. But she was tame compared to some of the mutants around her, from ones with enormous wings attached to their back to blood red eyes and fins.

"What is this?" Ace whispered, stepping forward. His amber eyes were fixed on the mutants, and his ears were pointed so far forward she feared they might snap off. Neon had her black eyes wide open, staring around at the mutants.

A few of the mutants had stopped what they were doing, looking over at them. One of them waved.

"This," and here the girl spread her arms wide, encompassing the entirety of the clearing, "is one of the only safe havens to mutants everywhere."

She grinned at their gobsmacked expressions. "I'm Bindy," she offered. "Welcome to the Pride."

* * *

 **Now this chapter has flavours of bringing out new subplots and more characters... XD**

 **I now have a steady way of bringing in new characters! But I have a request, and I can** _ **not**_ **believe I'm making it…**

 **I need a few flying characters. Normally that seems to be the only thing submitted, with maybe a fox or cat here and there. But instead, I've gotten a grand total of two.** _ **WHAT?**_

 **So I am requested that some people submit a flying character or two. This might give you a higher chance of getting in, as for the story I need a few. One will even make the role of main character ;)**

 **And for those who have already submitted a flying character, don't think that I'm just not using yours. I want a little competition to find the best fit for my story.**

 **Also, can I have a few abilities? For my story I'd like a few characters to be able to do special things.**

 **Sorry for all the requests! Please read and review!**

 **Frost OUT!**


	7. Chapter 7

Ace was very, very confused.

At least this time he had a reason to be, and it was mostly his own emotions. He could practically feel the confusion _pouring_ from the people around him, hitting him like a wave. It almost overwhelmed his own emotions but he tried to shove it down. He looked around again to distract himself.

Mutants; everywhere he turned. He wished he could cover his ears and close his eyes but still, their emotions hit him. He would be bowled over soon if he couldn't distract himself. His eyes followed a boy looping through the air, gliding on giant gray wings that were spread out on either side of him.

 _Happiness fear confused bored confused_

A voice barreled through his thoughts, and he jerked his head up to focus. The girl - Bindy, he thought her name was - was gesturing around the clearing, mouth open. Her fangs glinted openly, unfolding and folding up again. She didn't seem to have the best control of them.

"The Pride is our group. We help escaped mutants get to safety and away from here." She pointed back the way they had come, and Ace saw the glint of claws on the tip of her fingers. Her red hair bounced, falling in large curls that framed her face.

He got a surge of annoyance from his left, and couldn't stop his head snapping in the direction. Ophia wrenched her wrist from Bindy's grip. Ace could see thin, finger-shaped bruises sprouting up from her skin, the black and blue swirling with her dark coloring. He winced in sympathy.

 _Apologetic sadness_

Ignoring the blast from Bindy, he opened his mouth and asked the obvious question.

"But you're so close. What if the Eraser's find you?" He looked around at all of the mutants her in this clearing barely a day's walk away from the school.

Bindy gave him a sad smile, her lips twitching up and then down.

 _Sadness resignation_

"We have to be close enough to find the runaway mutants. If we were farther away we couldn't save them." She stared at the forest, eyes flicking over the trees. Then she shook her head.

"But we're not in that much danger. We can call for backup if we're ever in danger."

Neon cocked her head to one side, black eyes narrowing. "What do you mean, backup? Are there more mutants?"

Bindy threw back her head and laughed, long and hard. Her eyes sparkled with mirth when she lowered her head again. Ace couldn't help but step back, ears lowering against his skull. He noticed Reflex doing the same, but her ears actually stuck over the back of her head. He resisted the urge to poke fun at them.

"Why is it that every mutant that escapes think they're the only one?" She asked out to the air. Her shoulders shook slightly as she bit her tongue to force the last of the giggles back.

 _Happiness humor_

She refocused, flicking her mismatched eyes back to their faces. "The Pride is only the first step. There are more mutants that escape from every different School across the country, and we've all found each other."

She started holding up her fingers, ticking off them as she spoke. "There's the Pride, the Pack, the Herd, the Swarm, and the Pod, but they are mainly based in water."

Ace felt his jaw drop open. He stared across at all of the mutants in the field, the seemingly endless number. To think that there were _more_ of these groups…

"What do the groups do?" Reflex asked, the fur on her face puffed out. It was smoothing over as she spoke, and it let Ace see the bright red blush of her cheeks. Her small tail thrashed against her legs.

Bindy tilted her head to one side, considering. She tapped her fingers along her thigh, the dry scratch of scales against claws filling his sensitive ears. He winced slightly, pressing them to the sides of his skull.

"We rescue mutants and find a place to find a pla- put them," She started to explain, tripping slightly over her words. Her face instantly bloomed scarlet, discoloring the freckles dashed under her cheeks. She shook her head as if it could dislodge her stuttering.

 _Embarrassment shame_

"We find them new places to live. More often than not it's in their animal's habitat, which can be hard to find for some. We also have some that join one of our groups."

A surge of emotions from Reflex - _sadness pain regret_ \- and his neck snapped in her direction. Her face had fallen, ears pressed tightly to the side of her head. Shoulders hunched slightly inwards and claws bit into her palms.

Ace wanted so, _so_ badly to touch her shoulders, to comfort her, but the emotions she was sending his way told him that that was the _last_ thing she wanted.

"I'm part caracal." Ace noticed she had taken away the 11% she normally said. "They're from Africa; any chance that I could go there?"

Bindy winced, the scales on her neck shifting up and down. "No. We're in America, and very few mutants can even earn money, so we don't have nearly enough to send you there."

Reflex shook her head, a bit too hard to be normal. "N-no, it's fine." She hiccuped slightly before her face schooled over. Her shoulders snapped back up, ears shooting back to their straight position on her head.

But that sure didn't stop Ace's abilities, and though her posture screamed confidence, her mind told him the _fear sadness_ she was feeling.

Bindy spread her arms wide, noticeably shifting a bit away from the mutant. "Go explore a bit," she offered. "There's something to do here until our leader finds you, which always happens." She smiled wanly at them. "I swear it's their special talent."

"Okay," Ophia said. She immediately turned towards the glimmering pool of water he could see, curiosity seeping from her. Her long black hair brushed against her back and she was moving.

Ace only paused for a second before speeding after her, furry paws falling on the grass. It tickled his feet and legs but he tried to ignore, trotting until he was side by side with the snake mutant. Her hazel eyes snapped to him before shooting back to the water.

He heard soft footsteps from behind him and, twitching his nose, he recognized the slight burning scent from Neon. She was much quieter than Ophia or himself, seeming to walk on the grass without crumpling it or shifting it in the slightest.

There was a pounding and Reflex shot out next to them, ear flicking. She slowed to their speed, a light walk. The four of them made a formidable sight; all of them were dangerous in their own way.

They arrived at the pool of water, the smooth surface marred by small ripples near the edge. Ophia instantly shot towards the other side of the pool. There was a small indent where the water swirled out in a shallow area.

He heard a splash and saw her climb in, moving her arms out in front of her. Ripples spread out from her form.

Neon was crouched beside her, watching Ophia intently. The blue and yellow splotches on her throat stood out starkly against the white mutant clothing, and she made a small gesture to tuck up one of the collars against it. She didn't climb in the water but instead settled herself by the edge, content to watch.

Ace knelt by it, staring at his reflection. It wavered, distorting his face until it looked like he had shifted like an Eraser. He coughed suddenly, shivers prickling up his spine. The thought of Eraser's was much too early when they were still so close to the School.

He heard a splash from a few feet in front of him. He caught a glimpse of emotions - _confusion curiosity_ \- before looking up.

A head emerged up from the water, sending ripples over the surface. A shape was in the water below it, though it was hard to tell in the surprisingly dark liquid.

Bright crimson hair that seemed like blood was splayed across the water, soaking wet. It was rather short but seemed shorter by being suctioned to the mutant's head. For that was what it was; there was nothing else such a strange being could be.

Blazing red eyes that bulged out slightly from the pale-skinned face, with large pupils and a glossy sheen. Gills the size of his hand marched up her neck in a row, seeming too large for her small size. Her jaw protruded strangely from her face, too large and wide. Certain patches of her skin glittered like scales.

She was, without a doubt, the strangest creature he'd ever seen before.

He loved it.

 _Curiosity confusion curiosity_

"Hello," he offered. The mutant blinked at him, wide eyes flicking towards him. She swam a bit closer, using fingers with webs in between them.

"I'm Ace." He shifted back on his knees, leaning closer to the water.

"Nova." She said back to him, her voice rather soft. He tilted his head to one side as she swam in small circles, keeping her eyes fixed on his. She ducked below the surface for a second, her mouth open and gulping. Her gills fluttered.

 _Amusement amusement excitement_

In a sudden surge of motion, she flung herself forward, smacking onto the water. He jerked, but a wave of water sped toward him. He yelped and surged back, trying to dodge it, but it splattered over him like a wall. It soaked through his fur in seconds and ran over his skin. He yowled in frustration.

 _Amusement happiness_

Nova peeked up from the water again, her head cocked to one side. She smiled at him, showing teeth insanely sharp, even larger than his own.

"What was that for?" He cried out. Instinct welled up in him and he shook violently, sending water droplets flying out in all directions. The second he was done he regretted it. His fur stuck up like a mess, poking at his skin and puffed out and _still wet_.

Nova frowned at a few strands of cat hair that floated towards the water, splashing water over them until they sunk below the surface. She ducked below the water again, and he saw her gills flapping back and forth. She popped back up, head tilted to one side.

"Don't know." She didn't give him any other explanation, her red eyes shooting over his shoulders. A new set of emotions bullied its way into his conscious, ones he recognized as _curiosity sadness happiness_.

Reflex sat next to him, staring out at Nova. But the mutant was already below the water, her form disappearing into the blackness.

Reflex turned to him, face expressing the same confusion her emotions said. "Who was that?"

"Nova, apparently," he said back. He resisted the urge to shake again, the water still dripping over him. "A fish mutant."

Reflex looked closer at the water, her nose twitching. Both of her ears were pointed towards it, moving back and forth.

She reached a paw forward, hovering an inch above the surface. Her fur bristled, and her eyes narrowed as they studied the liquid. Then she leaned forward and dipped it in, stirring up the water.

The result was instantaneous.

Reflex shot backward, slipping away from the pool. Her fur popped outwards with an audible 'poof', sending waves of hair flying off her body. Her paw was held as far away from her body as possible.

"Nope." She declared, still dancing on one foot. "Nope nope nope. Not doing that."

Ace roared with the laughter, the feeling starting in his chest and spreading throughout his body. It was uncalled for but wonderful, and it only increased as he watched Reflex try to smooth her fur down from its startled position.

A shadow fell across his face, and he looked up.

A hand landed on his shoulder, claws digging into his skin.

* * *

 **Still not dead!**

 **So there, I've introduced different ways to have characters, with the Pride, Pack, Herd, Swarm, and Pod. And also the leader of each group; now** _ **those**_ **will be fun to write!**

 **Anyone want to send in the leader for the Pride? While I could always select one from the mutants I already have, I'd like to give new people a chance.**

 **(Though seriously people, when I say I want more mutants, I WANT MORE MUTANTS)**

 **(Which I STILL DO)**

 **So, since I need, characters and this seems to be a good way to get them, I have added a form to my profile. You don't need to use it but you can.**

 **How'd you guys like the chapter in Ace's POV? I can do more chapters in other's POV if you guys like.**

 **But in order to tell me that, you have to review!**

 **Please review!**

 **Frost OUT!**


	8. Chapter 8

Reflex stiffened as she heard Ace yelp.

She whirled around, wet paw still extended away from her body. Ace was sitting by the edge of the water, fur puffed outward and face started. And standing behind him was a mutant.

It was a girl, one with darkly tanned skin that was so different from Reflex's own sun-starved tone. But she wasn't nearly Ophia's color, and Reflex could see uneven patches on her tan.

Her hair was long and black, looped around and around itself and pinned to the back of her head. But the very edges were ragged, just like Reflex's own. The School made a very clear point of sawing off mutant's hair with a knife when it got too long, and though the girl's hair had grown, she was still marked by that. But it was pretty in the style that looked like a flower bud on the back of her head.

But what stunned Reflex were the wings.

They were giant, snapping out from her back. More than the girl's height for each one, they were a deep green like trees at night. They faded to a darker blue the closer to the top they got, and they eventually switched to black. They ruffled slightly in a soft wind, wavering though they were steady on the girl's back. Reflex caught sight of a few light green feathers poking over her shoulder and up her neck, laying flat against her skin. But they weren't the only thing there.

Scales, black as the coldest night, marched neatly up her throat. They were sprinkled on the back of her jawline and spread slightly up her cheeks, glittering as the light hit them. Reflex saw them on her shoulders, cheeks, hands, arms; they seemed to be everywhere, just like Ophia's.

"Hello," the mutant offered. "My name is Loki. I'm the leader of the Pride."

"You are?" Reflex caught herself saying. She blushed, though it was hidden by her fur. "I'm Reflex."

Ace cocked his head to one side, ears twitching. Reflex nearly hissed as her own ears twitched back, communicating to the oblivious serval hybrid. "Ace."

Reflex crept closer, getting within an arm's length of the two mutants. Her ears, not shutting up, twitched wildly, angled toward Loki.

But then Ace paused, brows furrowing. His tongue, a bit too small and a bit too pink to pass for a human's, licked his lips. "Why are you nervous?"

Loki peered at him, eyes narrowed.

Ace shook his head. "Never mind."

Loki gave him another look but then turned away, focusing on Reflex. "You're the new mutants, correct?"

"Er- yeah." Reflex nodded, bouncing up and down on the pads of her paws. Claws poked out from her hands, bright and sharp.

Loki stared at her claws, eyes narrowed. Reflex hesitantly retracted them, watching her face light back up when they were behind her fur. Ace gave her a confused look.

Loki chuckled. "Do not worry. You are in no danger from us here." She gestured around the clearing. "This is our home. We could no more harm you than harm ourselves."

Then she fixed both of them with a curious stare. "How did you escape?"

Ace took the incentive. "There was an Eraser that came and opened up our cages. I don't know why, but we-" he gestured to Reflex and then back at himself. "-were able to escape."

There was a paused, where Loki's eyes widened and her face light up like the sun.

"He did it. He really did it…" she murmured, voice so quiet Reflex could barely hear it. Her ears twitched forward, black tufts of fur vibrating.

"Who did what?" Ace asked, anxiety creeping into his voice, though it was gone by the last word. He stood up, standing at nearly the same height as the mutant. But the ears on his head put him a few inches higher.

Loki didn't look intimidated in the slightest, relief coloring her face and voice. "Our Eraser, Rowan. He's our double agent, and he's been rescuing mutants, as many as he could." She fixed them with an excited look before her gaze snapped over to the forest. "How many did he get? Just you?"

Reflex's mouth was dry. "Hundreds."

Loki's jaw dropped.

" _Hundreds_?"

Her voice was taut was relief and excitement. Shoulders sagged from their tight position and wings gently whirled around to tuck themselves on her back. But her hands were still tight by her side, trembling slightly.

Her slitted eyes narrowed.

"Where are they?" She asked, voice darker than it had been. "You said there were hundreds. But then there must have been more of you." Her gaze flicked from the two of them to Ophia and Neon. They sharpened.

Ace's ears snapped back. They pinned themselves to the back of his head, and Reflex could see his claws slipping slightly out of his hands. But Loki was just nervous. Why was he reacting like that?

There was a pause, one filled with heavy silence and tense quiet. Loki's eyes scanned their faces, their clothing, their ears, their everything.

Then, with her wings fully emerging and snapping out beside her, Loki spun around and barked out, "Creep!"

Not a second later, there was a person jogging up to them. He was tall, several heads over Reflex's (admittedly) short height. His hair was long and black, reaching several inches past his neck. It contrasted with his pale skin, which seemed to glow while his hair took away the light.

His eyes were enormous for his face, looking wrong and definitely not human. They were a bright gold, half squinted from the sun. But there was nothing else that looked mutant-ish.

"Yes? What is it?" His voice was lazy, cool, but his posture was tense and nervous. His feet shuffled slightly on the ground, bare feet squishing the grass.

"Mutants have escaped nearby. We need to find them."

Creep's eyes shot open fully, exposing large, unnaturally black pupils. His head snapped toward Reflex and Ace. He nodded toward them.

"How many more?"

Loki's voice was hard. "Hundreds, they said."

Creep grinned wildly, teeth sharp. "Rowan." He looked around at the clearing, eyes flicking over the mutants. "How big of a team are you making?"

"Everyone." She paused. "Well- I'll leave Nova and the other fish mutants, but everyone else should come." She fixed him with a short look. "Take your group and head toward the school. Scout out whether the Erasers are coming."

Creep grinned, snapping a hand to his forehead in a mock salute. Then he turned around and sped away, people peeling away from the crowd to join him.

Reflex watched them in awe. The other mutants only had to look at Creep's jogging form and then they were moving, racing their way through the crowd to arrive by him. As a solid wall of people, they disappeared into the forest, leaving nary a rustling branch in their path.

It was…incredible.

Loki waited for a second until there wasn't even a hint of Creep's group. Her face hardened, steel flickering up in her eyes. Her back straightened and her wings flared out again. With a powerful stroke, she rose up in the air.

Instantly, every other mutant in the field stopped and looked up at her. Heads angled upward and motions stopped, each staring up at the slowly flapping girl in the sky.

"Mutants!" Loki's voice was more powerful from this height, stronger. "We have a group of mutants that have escaped the school, but they're missing. We need to find them, and quickly."

"Flyers!" Instantly, those with wings snapped to attention, some rising slightly up in the air. "Search the forest. Remember to stay low, and when you find them, do not engage yet! Come back and get back up. We can't alert the Erasers."

Those with wings nodded before all of them shot into the sky. They wheeled away, flying in all directions.

Slowly, Loki pointed in three different directions. The mutants arranged themselves into three groups, moving quickly.

Reflex looked around. She could see hints of a pattern. There was a group of predator mutants, ones with powerful claws and whipping tails. Teeth were bared and ears back.

Another was smaller, more close together, but the mutants within were just as determined.

The last seemed strange, just a hodge-podge of mutants. Reflex couldn't see any sort of pattern.

"Ace!" Loki barked, swooping down in front of him. He yelped, stumbling backward, but he looked up at her.

"Where did you come from?"

Ace frowned. "The school?"

Loki shook her head. "No. The direction. Which side of the school did you come from?"

Ace's eyes widened in understanding. "Oh." He looked around, before finding where they had entered the clearing. "That way."

Loki nodded.

"Predators! Left!" Instantly, the first group of mutants whipped around and flew toward the forest, breaking branches and brambles in their path. The second group tensed.

"Prey! Right!" They darted in as well, headed in a slightly different direction than the first group.

"Mess-" Loki froze, the words stuck in her throat. Everyone left spun toward the direction she was facing and stared.

There was something in the sky. Something large and human shaped, with brilliant white wings spreading out from its back.

Something with a trail of blood leaking below it.

"Loki!" A loud voice nearly screamed from behind her. Reflex jumped, spinning around with claws extended and fangs bared. She couldn't see any threats.

But then a tiny mutant with bright yellow ears came hurtling toward them. His eyes were wide with panic and fear, chest heaving. But he was bolting across the field, growing closer and closer. Reflex could see the tall pale form of Creep behind him, golden eyes wide.

"Yes?" Loki said hurriedly, getting closer to the mutant. "What is it?"

"Erasers," the mutant gasped. His breath shot out in short bursts, head falling down to nearly his chest. "We spotted them coming toward us from the school. They can't-" he pauses to suck in a strangled snap of air. "They can't be more than a few minutes away."

"How many?" Loki demanded.

The mutant paused, face grim. "Hundreds."

* * *

 **Hello!**

 **How many of you thought I was dead?**

 ***blushes nervously***

 **Sorry about that. But anyway! I hope you enjoy this new chapter and cliffhanger.**

 **Again, I'm really quite sorry I didn't update this story for a while. My novel (and a new fanfic) got in the way. But now I'm back! I hope you enjoy!**

 **This fanfic is coming along quite well, and I'm enjoying. More characters are welcome because I can always insert a side character who bounces in and out a few times. Powers are welcome!**

 **Also, do you think that Reflex and the gang should be captured or not? Leave your answers down below!**

 **Another also; I'm thinking of making the fight scene in other mutant's POV, one of the 'groups'. Should I do Reflex or someone new? Tell me who you want to see!**

 **But anyway! Since I'm not dead, I'm curious. Would any of you be willing to submit some Erasers?**

 **So, in my story, the whitecoats are a bit more advanced. There aren't ways for hundreds of subjects to escape without inside agents, which is what has been happening for years.**

 **So, in my story, the whitecoats are trying to create different, more loyal Erasers.**

 **So different animal combinations, different amounts, less shifting, more shifting; go crazy! I want to make this story different.**

 **And not something like Flyboys, or flying Erasers or whatever you call them. Make them** _ **different**_ **.**

 **You can either create a single Eraser or a breed of them. Go crazy!**

 **Good luck!**

 **Please read and review!**

 **Frost OUT!**


	9. Chapter 9

_Erasers_.

All around her, mutants exposed claws and bared teeth. Fur fluffed out and tail straightened, scales hitting each other. Mutants lowered themselves into a battle-ready stance, eyes flicking over the forest.

Mutants faced every direction. Which way were they?

Ophia was terrified, eyes whipping in every direction. She pulled herself out of the pond, Neon right behind her. The air was quiet, but the terrible kind of quiet. The kind that suffocated. The kind that drowned.

The kind that killed.

The white winged mutant landed heavily on the ground by Loki. His feathers were puffed out and broken in some places. A cut spread like an earthquake up his leg. Blood spilled from it and onto the ground. He winced as he put weight on the leg.

Ophia shook the last bit of water off of her legs and snuck toward the mutant.

Loki was crouched in front of him, her pale green eyes wide. "Lukas. Report. What's goin on out there?"

The mutant winced once before straightening. "We were just going for an aerial view. Trying to find out where the Erasers were so we could tell everyone. But-" he coughed, and a bit of blood seeped through his fingers. "They were in the air. I don't know. They were like regular Erasers. But they had _wings_."

He shook his head, blond hair shaking. "We didn't see them coming. I was able to get away. But-" his breath hitched. "Renegade is dead, and i wasn't able to see what happened to the others."

Loki's eyes widened. "Lord. You said that they were flying? Which way? Where were they going?

Lukas paused, looking up in the air. Blood still leaked from his wound. He paled rapidly.

Loki shook his shoulders. "Where? Where were they coming from?"

With a shaking head, Lukas sighed. "Here. They were flying right toward here."

Loki released a flock of curse words so vivid and creative that Ophia could have blushed if she didn't have scales on her cheeks. The mutant's wings snapped and flexed in a horrible kind of anger, dark green feathers cutting through the air.

She snapped to Lukas. "Can you still fly?"

He winced, looked at his leg, and then straightened up. "Yes. Though not for very long."

Loki nodded. "Good. I need you to get to either the Predators or the Prey - whichever you can find first. Tell them to come back to the Pride."

She paused. "Actually, find the Predators. The Prey need to find the other mutants before the Erasers get to them."

Lukas nodded his head. Loki backed away from him, leaving a clear path. He took a few steps back before breaking out in a stumbling run. He snapped his wings out and leapt as high as he could.

It was unsteady, but eventually his wings caught a draft and he flew off toward the forest.

Loki sucked in a deep breath, eyes closed. The black scales glittered on her throat. Then she took a deep breath and started to shout.

"Mutants!" Everyone immediately flocked to her, eyes full of worry and panic. There weren't that many here. Only the mutants who weren't part of the other groups. It was only around fifteen, and three of them seemed to be only six years old.

Ophia jogged up to Loki. She could feel her fangs flexing inside of her mouth, long and sharp. She had never fought an Eraser before. She hadn't been in the Arena, having spent most of her life adjusting to getting DNA after she was born. She hadn't fought before.

Neon came up behind her. The mutant stayed a good two feet away from everyone, arms tucked in close to her body.

Loki spoke in a voice that demanded attention. "We are under attack, and it may be a while before the others manage to come back. There are some sort of flying Erasers that are coming to attack us here. We will fight them off."

"Remember." Her voice changed, becoming harder. More war-like. "They are the ones who made us run until we passed out. Stuck needles and cut us open. The ones who tortured us and expected us to obey them. But will we obey them?"

Every mutant screamed back at her. "NO!"

"Then let us show them that we do not!" Loki roared, slowly extending her wings. She flashed two inch long fangs out of her mouth.

"They have made us like this. Let us show us what we can do!"

It was a roar of sound, something furious. There weren't that many mutants there but everyone poured their heart into it. Ophia joined her voice with theirs, feeling the ground shake beneath their feet.

A howl echoed through the forest. It seemed to be answering back to them.

"Get ready!" Loki warned.

Every mutant took several steps away from each other. Fangs were bared and claws extended. There was no one with wings except for Loki, and she took a running start and leapt into the air. Slowly she rotated around, before her face went pale.

She landed heavily, before pointing in a direction. "They are coming from there. Let us make them regret this!"

Ophia heard a hiss and saw Reflex push her way toward her, pale green eyes narrowed and pupils slitted. Her ears were straight up and her fur was raised. Claws extended out from her paws.

Ace was right beside her, but something was wrong with him. His eyes were wide with not only fear, but something else. He covered his ears with his paws, but there wasn't any sound.

Neon didn't make a sound, but she sucked in a deep breath. Her throat extended out somewhat, and the blue and black splotches seemed to glow with a fevered light in the dying sun.

Ophia took a cue when she saw it. She settled herself into the most stable position she knew, one foot behind and one in front. She clenched her hands into fists, the scales on her right knuckle shining in the light. She bared her fangs and hissed.

There was silence except for the rustling of mutants, soft growls, and low hisses. Everyone was as tense as could be possible.

Then the first Eraser dropped from the sky.

It landed in front of them, fangs bared and grey wings tucked to its back. It seemed to grin at them, tensing its back legs.

Then Loki exploded toward it.

It tried to throw a punch but Loki grabbed the arm and bit down as hard as she could. The Eraser shrieked and tried to pull back, but its movements were sluggish, slowed. Loki kept on biting until the Eraser let out a gurgle and slumped to the ground. It did not move.

"Use what you what!" She roared at them. "Everything you have- attack them with it!"

There was an howl from above, and a dozen Erasers landed with _thumps_ all around the group of mutants.

There was one in front of her. A brute with black wings.

Ophia hissed and ran at it.

It swung a punch at her. She blocked it with her scales. The impact hurt much more than she had thought.

She bit her lip and started to attack.

She just had to get her fangs on it.

The Eraser howled and leapt at her. She fell to the ground and watched as it sailed over her head. It ran toward Neon.

Ophia jumped through the air and landed on its back.

The Eraser yelped and tried to buck her off, but she gripped its fur and hung on. She found its neck.

She lunged down and sank her fangs in.

It was horrible. She could feel the skin break and her fangs slide into its flesh. It screamed underneath her, sounding so, so human. But she pumped her venom in and it stopped moving.

Neon was gone already, running toward a Eraser battling Reflex.

Ace was frozen only feet from her, eyes squeezed shut and hands clasped over his ears. An Eraser took notice and sprang for him.

Ophia met him in midair and was thrown backward.

Her head slammed on a rock and her vision immediately grew blurry. A hand reached for her arm and she lunged at it.

"Me, Ophia, me!" Reflex panted, pulling her to her feet. The Eraser was under siege by three mutants.

But-

It was the last one.

Slumped piles of fur were strewn around the clearing. Ophia could see the one she killed, frozen on the ground.

The Eraser got its fangs around a mutant's arm and they shrieked. The other mutant grabbed it by its wings and pulled it off.

Its neck was snapped and it fell to the ground.

They-

They had won.

There was silence but only for a moment, and then everyone began to cheer. A loud and awestruck sound that filled the air with their victory. It was like nothing she had heard before. They had won.

Mutants everywhere leapt at each other, wrapping others up in their arms. They yelled as they hugged each other, though one ran off to one of the tents. They came back with a roll of something white.

The four injured mutants went to them, wincing or stumbling. Others helped wrapped their wound, brushing off their blood.

They had won.

Reflex stumbled toward Ace, placing a paw on his shoulder. He jumped.

Ophia turned around and searched the crowd. She found the one mutant standing away from everyone else, arms tucked it.

She ran to Neon.

"Are you okay?" She asked, voice low.

Neon jumped, looking over at her. Eyes wide, she nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

Ophia grinned, the realest she had ever done since she escaped the School. It felt natural.

And Neon didn't flinch away from the fangs that extended out of her mouth, the edges glinting with scarlet blood. She just sighed happily and closed her eyes. "We won."

"That we did."

They both glanced at each other and started a low laughter built from stress and relief.

But then Neon's pure black eyes widened in horror and she screamed.

Ophia leapt backward and raised her fists. Neon shrieked "Behind you!"

She spun around and was met with the claws of an Eraser.

They caught her on the face and threw her to the side. She fell heavily on the ground, cheeks burning with red hot pain.

Neon tried to lurch backward but the Eraser ran at her all the same. It grabbed her around the white clothing and slammed her on the ground. She slumped down and didn't move.

Ophia tried to reach for her, tried to save them both, but the Eraser's foot came down on her head and she knew no more.

* * *

 **Hello! Totally not dead.**

 ***blushes heavily and tries to come up with an excuse***

 **Well, so here's the story. I've been working on my novel - slow going, eh? - but it just wasn't working for me. So I've posted little oneshots and tried to get another fanfic going to get the old juices flowing again, but that didn't work. So I had to come back to my masterpiece XD**

 **But anyway! Story details.**

 **Sorry if you submitted an Eraser and I didn't use them. Don't worry. I will ;)**

 **But everyone was captured! Oh no!**

 **What happened was that after they beat the flying Erasers, normal Erasers came in and attacked them. A lot more than just a dozen, and everyone lost.**

 **But I also used Lukas this chapter! Thanks to VentustheStorm!**

 **How did you like the chapter in Ophia's perspective? I've been thinking of posting side stories about each of the character's backstory, or something like that. I'm no quite sure, but I know the theme I would go for. So for I've got the backstories of Ophia, Neon, Reflex, and Ace. Tell me if you want me to write those!**

 **But now they are back in the School, and they won't be treated quite as nicely as they were before! (Though there really wasn't a 'nice')**

 **Anyway! Please read and review!**

 **Frost OUT!**


	10. Chapter 10

Reflex woke up as her head slammed into something.

She immediately snapped to attention. Opening her eyes had them blinded by a brilliant light. It smarted and burned until she shut them again.

Her air came in with short jerky breaths that make her chest throb and ache. She desperately tried to calm down.

A second later, she tried to leap into the air. She couldn't move her arms or legs.

Squinting, she slowly opened one eye a crack. After a time that seemed much too long, she finally adjusted and was able to look around.

At least, as much as she could.

Right in front of her was a full grey surface, only inches from her face. She tried to flail backward and couldn't.

There was something on her face.

She instinctively tried to bite it. Her fangs did nothing.

It took her a second of feeling the rough cloth pressing on her face to realize what is was. Her muzzle. The one specifically made for overly large feline teeth. The one she had struggled with for however many years she had been trapped at the School.

She screamed against it.

Her claws tried desperately to extend. They were blocked by a hard surface that was molded around her paw. It was the same on her feet. She could hear chains clanking close to her.

There was something that tied her tail to the back of her leg. Something heavy on her throat made of a cold metal.

 _School. School. School._

Panic rose like a tsunami in her throat. Her ears pressed flat against her head. Her fur bristled up against her clothes, all over her body.

By throwing herself from side to side, she was able to get herself in a kneeling position. Her ears flicked wildly before she even started to look.

There was a thrumming sound, loud but somehow distant. She had heard it over the School many times. The clack of claws on metal. A muffled screaming. Slowly, she craned her neck up.

She was facing a metal wall with three hoops in it. Chains slithered their way away from it and headed toward her. She threw her paws out and saw the covers, chains attached. The final one was attached to her throat. She screamed again.

The chains weren't long enough for her to stand without choking herself. But she could turn around - barely - and see the room she was trapped in.

It was made of the plain metal walls that made up both the ceiling and floor. And everywhere on the walls were more mutants.

There were only around fifteen. She recognized them as the ones that had been in the Pride area.

Most of them were passed out, hanging limping with chains around their throats and hands. All of them were bound up in some ways. Nearly all had some form of muzzle, and others had on claw covers. To her right was Loki, her wings bound sharply behind her back. A muzzle bound her face and manacles were on her hands. Actually, there was was something else. A small pinprick was visible on her neck. Reflex breathed in deeply and could smell the slight burning scent of the School. They'd knocked her out.

And to her left was Ophia.

She was locked in a cage.

It was made of a strange see through material, one like plastic but more sturdy. Air holes were poked through the top, barely as thick as her finger. She pounded her scaled fists onto the plastic, screaming wildly. There was only a muffled sound that escaped.

There was something wrong with her face. Three slashing marks, bright red and fresh, were cut across her cheek. The area around them looked tender.

They were Eraser claw marks.

Her eyes widened as she saw Reflex awake. She slammed her hands on the surface even more.

Reflex cocked her head to the side, even as her ears flattened. She gestured to the box. The muzzle didn't let her even make a peep.

Ophia mouthed _poison_. Reflex's eyes widened and she nodded. That must have also been the reason for Loki being knocked out.

She scanned the room, sniffing lightly. She was distracted for a second by another feline mutant, but quickly found Ace, curled up in a corner. He wasn't moving.

Neon was in another glass box, sitting cross legged. She didn't have any form of muzzles or shackles. It was probably because no one could touch her. Her pure black eyes were open and searching calmly, but the colors on her skin were bright and angry. She made eye contact with the both of them, pressing her hand to the box.

Caracals were solitary creatures, so Reflex had no idea why she wanted to find the rest of their little group. It was confusing but she didn't really have time to be confused.

A door banged open.

Every awake mutant immediately spun around and faced the door, eyes narrowed. Reflex tried to hiss but couldn't. The muzzle was tight and scratching against her lips.

An Eraser walked slowly into the room. It had a strange paler grey fur, and no wings attached to its back. It surveyed the room slowly.

It pulled open the door a bit more and let a dozen more Erasers in. Reflex hissed mutely.

"Grab 'em. We only have an hour to get them back." The first one said. All the others nodded.

Each Eraser walked in, immediately heading toward a spot on the wall. They paired off, one Eraser for one mutant.

Reflex glared at hers, a brown furred monster with a curious expression. Her ears went back and she crouched as best she could, back legs coiled beneath her. She wasn't going to let this idiot _take her_.

Her tail desperately tried to swing around, but it was lashed to her leg. Her claws were bound. Her fangs were muzzled.

She had _no weapons_.

The Eraser leapt at her. She tried to leap to the side but the collar around her throat-

She fell to the ground, gasping.

It's arms went around her, unlatching the chains from the walls. It hooked them together on a wristband around the Eraser's arm. Even if she ran, she would be attached to him.

Then it growled at her and she went limp. There was no point in fighting a battle that would kill you.

The door clanged open again, and Erasers that had picked up passed out mutants went through, moving quickly. There was a pause.

Then a mutant walked through the door. It's head was low, but the bright clothing was unmistakable. Small rounded ears were pressed against its brilliant white hair.

A low hiss spread throughout the room. Reflex jumped.

"Felix!" A mutant cried, one of the few without a muzzle. "What are you doing?"

It struggled heavily in its Eraser's arms, but was thumped over the head and fell still.

She could smell the mutant now. A male, with something feline in him.

He looked up, and she could see strange black marks on his face. They circled his eyes then fell down his face like teardrops, stopping at the edges of his mouth. They seemed to be made of fur.

Her caracal instincts cheerfully told her that that was a larger cat than she was and really, she should get the hell away while she still can.

Her ears flattened.

Felix lowered his head and continued to walk into the room. A long spotted tail writhed behind him, betraying his emotions.

"Grab that tank first," the first Eraser ordered. It pointed to Neon's container. Felix simply nodded and moved forward.

Reflex was brought back to reality by a furry arm sweeping underneath her. She writhed, but only for a second. The Eraser picked her up and held her tightly. She was locked in.

Felix put his arms in Neon's tank and started to push. It rolled on wheels she hadn't seen and glided over the floor.

Neon was thrown to the side by the sudden movement. Ophia redoubled her efforts to break through the glass.

Reflex was moved quickly through the door. They had been in something strange, like a metal tube with blades on top. A helicopter.

That was what had been the strange sound.

But right outside of the helicopter landing was a building. A building with sterile white walls and a metal tiled roof. A building she knew all too well.

The School.

She screamed against her muzzle.

The Eraser carried her forward, toward an opening in the building. A set of glass doors. Using one clawed foot, it pushed it open.

Inside, there was a room. A pure white from floor to ceiling, with several lights surrounded by iron cages. The room was lined in stacked cages nearly ten feet high.

Reflex thrashed in the Eraser's arms. It tightened its grip.

Waking quickly, it reached a cage with another in top of it. With a quick motion, it shoved her down onto the ground.

The breath hissed out of her lungs. She scrambled to her knees.

One foot slammed into the small of her back. She collapsed.

The Eraser slowly opened the cage door, keeping a steady eye on her. Once it was fully opened, it reached down.

Slowly, while she was still pinned, it unattached the chains attaching her to its wrist. First her throat, then her paws. It left the covers and muzzle on.

Then it drew back its foot and kicked her into the cage.

She slammed into the back and immediately pushed off, lunging.

She hit the closed cage door, and the Eraser walked away. A silent hiss exploded from her.

Then Felix walked into the room. She didn't know what feline he was. It was definitely from Africa, though. Her instincts knew that well.

If she had to guess, maybe a cheetah. Definitely a white one, if the pale grey spotted tail had anything to do with it.

He slowly pushed Neon's container forward, sliding it onto the ground next to Reflex.

Neon slammed her fists toward him. They only met plastic.

Felix jumped, but turned around. It was then that she caught sight of something strapped to his neck.

It wasn't the normal metal collar to attach chains to. More slim, with a blinking light at one end.

Oh. A shock collar.

They were put on mutants who were expected to do things and needed _motivation_. That must have been the reason he obeyed the Erasers.

Felix walked out of the room, his claws clicking on the ground. He didn't have covers. Or a muzzle. Or anything except the collar.

Another Eraser walked into the room, rather large for them. It towered above six and a half feet. In its arms was a mutant with cat ears. Ace.

He was dumped, still unconscious, in the cage above Reflex. There was no struggle, and the Eraser simply shut the door and walked away.

More and more came in, dumping the last mutants into other cages. Felix came back in, pushing Ophia's tank.

The king cobra mutant was a seething, hissing ball of fury. Her tank was just big enough for her to turn around on her knees, about the size of the cages. She hurled herself at the walls, scratching with scaled fingers. The claw marks on her face didn't seem to bother her at all. The second she saw Neon and everyone else, she redoubled her efforts. The tank shuddered.

Felix gritted his teeth and kept pushing the container, though it bounced and shook under his fingers.

He reached Neon's tank. He slowly pushed Ophia's tank to the side, sliding it right in. Neon and Ophia plastered themselves to the walls of their containers that were close to each other.

A mutant growled at him as he walked out of the room, and though his ears pressed flat and his tail tucked down, he didn't say anything.

Reflex banged on the top of her cage with her bound fists, trying to wake Ace up. All of the mutants were in the room and the Erasers were gone. Either they would be left her, or someone would be coming in. He had to wake up.

The door opened again, and it wasn't an Eraser who walked in.

A man with a crisp white lab coat and a small ponytail walked in.

"Well." His grin was dark. "Welcome back."

* * *

 **Helll-oooo, everyone! I hope you like this chapter!**

 **Chapter ten, huh! The big ol' ten. And I've reached 20 thousand words! YAY**

 **So everyone has been recaptured, and now we've got a whitecoat on the scene! Side note; I kind of want someone to make up this whitecoats' name and personality and crap. I could do it, but if you guys want to, go ahead!**

 **Second side note. What should the 'group's name be? And should they ever meet the Flock?**

 **And ooo, Ophia's a bit scarred! Oh no!**

 **Important!**

 **Homophobic assholes leave now, please!**

 **So, what do you all think about Neon and Ophia eventually getting together? Like, I mean, this is Maximum Ride. They won't be focusing on their relationship and sex more than surviving, but I mean like opening up to each other and holding hands. Or whatever the poison dart frog equivalent is.**

 **But hey! Tell me what you think I'm the comments!**

 **Also, creators of Neon and Ophia, (LittlePineCone and pokemongirl101618), please give me the yay or nah for this. I mean, if you are REALLY REALLY against it and give me a good reason, I won't. But tell me!**

 **Anyway! Please read and review!**

 **Frost OUT!**


	11. Chapter 11

The head whitecoat walked slowly around the room. He was wearing heavy shoes that clicked as he walked, their heels made of metal. Every time he made a step, her ears flattened more.

He peered into every cage, not saying a word. His eyebrow cocked when he saw Ace, and he grinned softly at the passed out Loki.

His face wasn't evil or hard. In fact, it might have almost been handsome. Sculptured eyebrows, bright blue eyes. His cheekbones were high and defined.

Every mutant in this room hated him with a passion.

Though each of them had had a whitecoat who decided what to do with them, this idiot was the one who always had the final say. He was the one who decided Arena battles, the one who decided what experiment to pull, the one who decided how hard to push them before they broke.

Markus Reed was their devil.

He finished his rounds, a light smirk on his face. One of the mutants had tried to swipe him with their covered claws and hadn't even come close.

Standing the middle of room, he flicked his gaze all around, meeting each of their eyes.

Reflex hit the roof of her cage one more time and then fell still. She could hear Ace shifting above her, sluggish. Then he froze and a low hiss escaped his mouth.

Markus fixed his attention on the serval mutant before turning away. His whole posture was a kind of casual calm, the slouch of a king who knew he had won.

"Welcome back to the School," he said again. "While some of you have only been gone a day, others have been missing for much longer." His glare settled on the motionless Loki and stayed there.

"I, along with the others, would like to thank you for deciding to come back to us."

"We didn't try to come back!" Someone hissed. The sound was low and furious, though she couldn't see from what cage.

Reflex tried to whine. Both her human and caracal mind were at war. She knew, as a mutant, that she was supposed to submit to Markus and she wouldn't get hurt as much. Her caracal mind wanted to rip him to shreds.

She groaned mutely and crouched on all fours.

"Well, back you are, and we have many things that we need your help on." His gentler tone started to fade, and something bubbled up in his eyes. It rose the fur on her back, and she bared her fangs at him behind the muzzle.

Ophia screamed something at him, but her face was pale. The words barely filtered out of the box.

Markus started pacing, voice angry and bright. "We do not need you anymore. You have shown that you are of no use to us. Some of you have abilities or are hybrids and while that made you special, it does not anymore."

He whirled and pointed a finger at Ace. "You. Empathy."

Another at a girl with strawberry blonde hair and twin russet red ears. "You. Three DNAs other than human."

The last at Ophia. "You. DNA given after birth."

He continued, eyes narrowed. "But now that you are here, all we have to do is take samples of your DNA and then we will create more of you. Your abilities mean nothing to us if you cannot obey even the simplest of commands!"

A mutant across the room hissed furiously.

"All we have for you to do is test things that we can't test on more useful mutants for fear of them dying. Do you know why?"

He bared his teeth. "Because you are useless, and will be replaced."

Markus took a deep breath, steeling himself. His gaze flickered around the room, at the mutants pressed against the bars of their cages. Though their mouths were muzzled, eyes screamed fury at him.

"In under a week, we will have found every other mutant idiotic enough to escape. But by that time, half of you will be dead."

A pressing silence fell over the room.

"We are finally able to test the barriers of mutants. Think of yourself as the pioneers of a new development."

And with that, Markus Reed left the room and closed the door.

Every mutant was frozen, back stiff. They had never been threatened with death before.

Mutants were special creatures that the whitecoat s had created. Everyone was different and had been used to test things in order to make better mutants after them. And once they were 'tested out', they were sent to the Arena to fight for the rest of their life.

But never death.

Reflex sucked in a breath, air tainted by the cloth of the muzzle. She turned to see Ophia staring blankly at the wall. Her hands were tight in fists and her legs were coiled beneath her. She was doing the thing with her neck as well, having it puff out to twice its regular size. The golden scales in her throat shined in the light.

Neon was no better, though she hid it better. Her eyes were closed and she was sitting down. There was an imprint of her fist on the container.

Ace was pacing above her, the cloth covers in his paws sliding over the cage. She couldn't see him, but she imagined his ears were pinned back.

There was a horrible silence.

Reflex was scared. What tests would they force them to do? All she could do was move her spine. Would they force all of them to fight Erasers?

Mutants around her seemed it be having similar thoughts. The two without muzzled were silent, heads bowed. Ophia pressed her hand against her container, and Neon mirrored it.

Ace banged once on his cage. She hit hers back, answering him.

They waited for what seemed like forever. With no sense of time, it might have hours. Might have been minutes.

She had never had to wear her muzzle for this long, and breathing wasn't coming easy. Her stomach was tight, and she prayed for water. The fur on her back prickled, and her ears stood straight up. She could hear something. Footsteps.

The door banged open, and half a dozen Erasers walked into the room. The same pale grey furred one was in the front, and all of them had in the wristbands with chains attached. They were here to take mutants with them.

Markus walked out from behind them, a clipboard in hand. He peered at it as he walked around the room.

"Well…" He tapped a pencil on the edge of the wood, then pointed it toward the three DNA girl. "RFPCSH03. Send her to Ford, the speed test. He'll tell you where."

An Eraser nodded and walked forward. There was no struggle. It just reached into the cage, unlocked the gate, and snapped the throat chain on before she could even move.

The girl lunged at it, but the rest of her chains were latched on quickly. The Eraser dragged her out of the room, thrashing.

Reflex sucked in a deep breath and tried to be as small as possible.

Markus walked around the room, mutants shying away from him as he approached. He paused in front of a mutant with an enormous chinchilla tail, frowning. Then he pointed. "Her. To the lab. Stay there until they're done with her," he cautioned to the Eraser to stepped forward.

The little girl wasn't wearing a muzzle. She waited until the door was open, then lunged. Her human teeth landed in the Eraser's arm.

It winced and casually clubbed her over the head.

Markus shrugged. "Ah well."

The Eraser attached the chains quickly and walked out with the girl in its arms.

He scanned the room again, mouth quirked. Then he slowly walked toward their little group. His eyes gleamed with something as he saw the two containers. He raised one hand and pointed. "Those two. In the Arena."

"What?" Ophia helped, finally loud enough to be heard through the tank. "Are you-"

But two Erasers stormed up and grabbed onto the tanks. Neon slammed her fists onto the hands bit the plastic blocked her.

The Erasers shared a look and started pushing. They slowly started to wheel them out of the room, ignoring Ophia's furious thrashing. Her tank nearly fell over but then she was out of the room and gone. Neon was next.

Reflex bit back a scream.

But Markus didn't move away from them. Instead, his eyes flicked upward to Ace's cage. The serval mutant exploded in anger, hitting the bars of his cage.

Markus smirked. "Yes. Him. Endurance test," he said almost casually. An Eraser stepped forward, the pale grey furred one. It unclicked its chains and narrows its eyes.

Ace tried to flee as soon as his cage door was open. But he was four feet off of the ground and the Eraser grabbed him by the nape of his neck before he even reached the ground. Three clicks later and Ace was bound to him.

Still he fought, silent growls and furiously pulling away. The Eraser didn't even react, slowly walking out of the room. Ace was pulled along behind him.

Reflex reached out to him but couldn't get her paw covers past the bars. Markus' attention snapped to her.

"Oh, feline? Take her to the marine floor. Should be finished quickly."

The Eraser came for her, black furred. She cooked her legs and leapt for him.

She nearly got past him before he reached out in mid air and clicked the chain to her neck. She fell to the ground and was helpless as he finished tying her up.

The Eraser pulled her to her feet and started to walk. She tried to dig her heels in but the cloth covers glided over the floor.

They passed through the door and kept moving. It was slow but steady, and it only took a few minutes before they arrived in front of a door. The Eraser pushed it open and dragged her inside.

There were two whitecoats in the room, wing with another mutant. In the middle was an enormous tank, nearly ten feet high and fifteen feet wide. It was filled with water.

Reflex immediately started to thrash.

One of the whitecoats looked up. "Oh, did Markus finally send us a feline? You are-" he paused and flicked through the papers in his hands. His expression brightened. "Ah! CC01. Perfect."

"Well." He gestured to the tank. "Dump her in."

Reflex yowled furiously, but the Eraser walked up a set of stairs leading to the top of the tank. At the very top, there was something like a diving board. With three quick movements, the Eraser had unlocked her chains. It slapped its paws on either side of her face to hit the buttons, and her muzzle fell off. Her covers were removed.

She turned and lunged at it.

It kicked her into the water.

Her head went under. Instantly her fur was wet and stuck to her body, heavy and dragging her down. She furiously swam.

She could see the top of the water but she was falling. Her chest burned.

She needed air-

Her head broke the surface. She ducked in a deep breath but then the Eraser hit her head and she went under.

Her feet hit the floor and she tried to push off. Her movements were sluggish and then black danced in her vision. She tried one last time to swim before she passed out.

 **Hello again! Man, I spoil you. Another chapter in less than a day!**

 **Also, I have no idea how to do a horizontal line in my phone. Anyone know?**

 **But hey! Everyone's captured and are going out for tests! That could be bad!**

 **Reflex is underwater. Ace is doing endurance. Ophia and Neon have to fight each other. The next two chapters will be about those guys.**

 **And what do you think of Markus?**

 **Also, hey! I have Neon's aprival, but still waiting for Ophia!**

 **So still, I need a few more OCs that people are okay with dying. So like, if you really want to be in or are waiting for your other character to be in, just send me someone with the words 'Experiment OC' on top. They might not die, but they'll be like the Arena fighters and others in the Endurance test. Stuff like that.**

 **Also, Crimson47, please leave the review made by me in this story. Sorry, but you disabled PMs!**

 **Anyway! Please read and review!**

 **Frost OUT!**


	12. Chapter 12

Neon pounded her fists against the edges of her cage, the dull plastic all-too familiar.

Ever since she had been born, it had been that material in front of her eyes. Her cage was made from that. Her manacles were made from it. Even her food bowls were made from the clear plastic that glimmered when the hall lights hit it just right.

She sucked in a deep breath and punched the wall again.

The Eraser looked contemptuously down on her, still shifted. Nearly every Eraser in the school was shifted when dealing with mutants. It was safer that way. Much better being a 6-7 foot tall wolf monster than a gangly adult facing mutants.

It kept pushing the cage, not looking at her for the rest of the distance. Its claws clicked against the tiles of the floor. She knew where it was taking her.

The Arena. She was going to fight in the Arena. For the infinite time.

She was nearly undefeated in the Arena, if she did say so herself. There had only been a few rounds of testing on her, mainly as to why her poison was so much stronger than the other frog mutants. And after that, she was shoved under the care of an Arena whitecoat and forced to fight.

With her genetically modified poison, though, few mutants could touch her and fewer could attack her successfully. A single punch would make them sluggish if she landed it well enough and a few more had them frozen solid on the ground. And then she was called back for a day before she went out to fight again.

But this was Ophia.

She couldn't poison Ophia.

A bump in the floor quickly made he realize that she was already there. The Eraser was wheeling her into the large docking room, where her tank would be shoved out and then opened. The plain white walls lined with windows that she knew housed many scientists. If only she was part snake, then she could bare her fangs at them.

She settled for bristling her back and snarling.

But the Eraser quickly tapped its paw along the pad by the door, and the white metal was hissing open. Revealing green and green and green.

With one kick of its furry leg, her tank rumbled out of the room and into the Arena.

The trees here were bright and beautiful but now she had seen the outside world, one where trees grew up to touch the sky instead of just brushing against the glass ceiling. A place where the ground was covered in animal tracks insisted of mutant ones.

A place where she wasn't forced to fight.

There was a hiss and the door closed behind her, snapping shut and fading seamlessly into the wall. She only had to wait a second.

The snap of a latch and then the top of her tank popped slightly open. Of course it was remote controlled. They wouldn't trust a poisonous mutant to be less than twenty feet away and free.

She reached a hand up and pushed on the top. It slowly slid open, stopping once the lid was all the way on the other side.

Then she coiled her legs and lest into the Arena.

In a blink she was off. Ophia was in here somewhere. And she would find her before any other sort of threat in this room did.

"KO03 and FPD10 in the Arena today. When one is unable to fight, the match is over." The monotone voice echoed from above before blinking off. She didn't pay it any mind.

By the time she fought her way through the other side of the trees, she saw another tank.

Another tank with a mutant climbing out of it.

"Ophia!"

The snake mutant jerked to attention. Her gaze swing wildly before it landed on Neon, and then a real smile snapped over her face. She kicked back the lid fully and jumped out.

They ran to each other but Neon slowed, pulling back. Ophia winced and stopped a few feet away. The black lines marching down her throat was the reason. They couldn't touch. Couldn't hug. Couldn't - she threw her mind off the topic.

"They want us to fight." It was the best starter Neon could think of.

And really, what were they going to do? Mutants didn't leave the Arena until one of them was incapacitated in some way. And Neon wasn't knocking out Ophia. It wasn't going to happen.

"I don't know. I've never tried not fighting before. What would they do?" Ophia's voice - low and furious - matched her body posture, full of a deadly anger that always seemed to be there.

"What would they do?" Neon echoed. She had never thought about it.

"Let's do it then." There was a fire in Ophia's eyes, one that hasn't been there a second earlier. "Let's not fight. They- they can't force us to fight. And if they send in any Erasers, we'll defeat them together!"

Neon grinned.

And, without another word, they both sat down, only a foot away. Their backs were to the trees, and they weren't dumb enough to not watch the gates to see whether whitecoats would come charging in with stun guns.

Minutes ticked by with no response. Neither of them talked, moved, twitched or probably even breathed.

Had this ever happened before? Mutants deciding not to fight?

Would they be killed for it?

"They haven't done anything." Neon felt something stir inside of her, some instinct firing up her senses.

Ophia glared at the blank glass they knew was a one way window. "Anything yet. We've just got to be ready for whatever they do."

Markus cursed loudly. The scientist next to him barely flinched. It was normal.

He glared through the window at the two mutants sitting in Arena, only a few feet away from each other. They had raced for each other but they _weren't_ _fighting_.

They had talked, so they most likely knew each other somehow. But these were mutants. They weren't some childhood friend to meet on the streets and catch up with years later. It was impossible for them to know each other.

But they _weren't_ _fighting_.

He grimaced. There wasn't much he could do at this point other than send in a couple of Erasers to knock them out, which would be a feat within itself. FPD10 was a hardy subject unable to be touched and KO03 had long range venom attacks. It would be hard to get them out without one of them being knocked out, especially if they would possibly work together.

A thought bubble popped into his head.

"Riley?" He snapped to the man next to him.

The scientist jumped to attention. "Yes sir?"

"What did the lab say they wanted?" His mind was whirring a million miles an hour.

Riley tapped his clipboard. "Well, I believe they wanted more expendable subjects ever since you gave them the go-ahead for testing some more modern ideas, such as multiple DNAs and DNAs inserted after birth. Sir."

Markus grinned something dark and horrible. "Riley, have you ever heard of the saying 'survival of the fittest?'"

It was only a minute more when Neon finally heard something.

She whirled to face a gate only a few feet away from Ophia's tank, fists tight and back arched.

The wall split in half, exposing another docking room. Ophia bared two inch fangs.

A sopping wet mutant was kicked through the door, which promptly closed behind it.

Neon blinked. She knew that person. "Reflex?"

Ophia stood up, head tilted to one side. Her fangs folded back neatly within her mouth.

Reflex coughed something choked and wet, shaking.

Both of them ran to her.

She was soaked to the bone, fur ragged in clumps around her body. Her tail was limp and her ears were pressed tightly against her skull. There was no movement from her tightly shut eyes.

But there were no claw covers on her nor any muzzles.

Reflex briefly opened an eye and pushed herself up into all fours. She was still coughing, water coming out with every breath.

The door hissed open again. Neon spun and tensed.

Another mutant was booted out, one with less fur and pointed ears. It was Ace, looking more dead than she had ever seen him. Sweat gleamed on every part of his body from where he was crumpled next to Reflex.

More doors opened and shut, launching more and more mutants into the Arena. Some were alive and alert, claws extended and fangs bared. Some were more in Reflex and Ace's position, crumpled and exhausted.

What was going on? There were never more than three mutants in the Arena at one time.

And Neon found she could recognize some of them from her escape. There was Loki, wings bared and fangs out. She was crouched next to a collapsed mutant. There was Felix, banging on the door, no shock collar around his throat. Creep, curled in a ball with his hands over his eyes. And more and more and more.

They were all the mutants from the clearing.

Finally, Reflex pushed herself to her feet, still shivering and half dead. Ace was twitching and his eyes had opened but he didn't even seem capable of talking.

But then the mutants stopped coming out, and all of the doors hissed shut.

There was a silence that slammed over the Arena, heavy and tense and full of fear.

Neon backed up until she was only an inch away from Ophia, heart fluttering.

Something was happening, and she had never been more scared.

And then three doors hissed open, and out stepped two rows of Erasers.

They were fully shifted, baring fangs and claws and bristling hackles. Black and grey and brown and white fur lumped together. One laughed and touched another's shoulder, pointing toward a face-down mutant struggling to rise. A ripple of laughter spread throughout the group.

Neon tensed and slammed her fists into their positions. She wasn't going down.

But then an Eraser stepped in front of the group. An Eraser that wasn't shifted.

He was a man with frost tipped black hair and a devilish smirk, and his brown eyes glittered with delight.

"Welcome one and all to the newest Arena fight of the year!" He crowed, spreading his arms wide. A mutant hissed furiously at him. That only made his grin stretch wider.

"So, you're our little escapees. Betcha didn't think we'd get you back, did you? Well, that must suck to be you."

"But right now, the lab needs some new mutants to test on, around five to six. But the problem is, there are nearly twenty of you. Twenty expendable mutants who most likely aren't going to volunteer."

His eyes flickered with some sort of hunger that was quickly matched by the other Erasers there.

"So we could just choose some mutants, sure. But what better way to not only get the strongest mutants for the lab, but also train some of us?"

He took a step forward, and everyone shuffled away from him. A desperate fear took a deep root within Neon's mind.

"We get to weed out you lot until we find the best mutants you have to offer, and do what we will with the rest."

"And you know the best part?" He grinned past a mouth of teeth that were already sharpening.

"We're allowed to kill!"

 **He-lllooooo~~~!**

 **Not dead!**

 **XD Well, anyway, please don't kill me for this cliffhanger! I enjoyed writing it a lot and the next chapter should come out faster than this one, but I make no promises.**

 **But hey! Neon and Ophia are supposed to be fighting. Reflex is soaked. Ace is exhausted. And now they're supposed to fight a bunch of Erasers?**

 **Hmm.**

 **But hey, I want to give you guys a few chapters to give me some ideas. So, I was thinking that one of the core four - aw, that's cute - should be taken to the lab and have something done to them. Another DNA. An added power. A removed power. Something enhanced.**

 **And I want you to come up with it!**

 **Now, please remember, that if you want to come up with something for Ace, Neon, or Ophia, I have to okay it with their creators first. But Reflex is fair game.**

 **Anyway! Please tell me your ideas in the comments!**

 **Please read and review!**

 **Frost OUT!**


	13. Chapter 13

The Eraser in the front let out a short bark, his back flexing and shaking and popping out. Fur exploded over his face, dark brown with a light muzzle. His teeth finished sharpening and his ears shot up and extended back. His eyes turned a feral yellow.

Finally, a wolfman stood there instead of a man, panting slightly. His claws were sharp and extended, and his eyes flicked toward a mutant only ten feet away from him.

Slowly, his gaze had landed on every mutant in the Arena. They were all frozen in various forms of cowering, fur sticking straight out and ears pinned to heads. The several that were close to the Erasers were inching away.

"Not prepared at all, are you?" His voice switched to something mocking. "Never had to fight for your life? You've always been sheltered from dying here. Always threatened with injuries or more tests."

"Welcome to the real world. We don't hold your hand anymore - we rip it off."

"We'll give you a head start." His voice was darkly pleased, but his face straightened out into some politely curious expression. He stood neatly up on his back paws, settling back onto his haunches like a dog waiting for a treat. There was no move to attack any mutant. Every other Eraser matched him, tongues lolling. They didn't move.

Reflex's heart was beating a mile ahead of her body. She was soaked to the bone and her exhaustion was set deeper than that. Her lungs still burned for air and there was water staining her throat. Adrenaline was laced through her blood, and it was moving faster and faster.

But Ace was laying on the ground, still weakly moving.

Markus had sent him to the endurance test.

He wouldn't be moving for a couple of hours, his muscles weak and ripped raw. There was no way for him to defend himself.

The lead Eraser slowly shook himself, fur fluffing out. He still didn't move forward, but his eyes flicked over the mutants still frozen in front of him, and his fangs were bared and hungry. An Eraser next to him barked sharply.

Reflex stared at Ace again, who had managed to get himself onto his knees. His shoulders shook.

She took off toward the closest wall and pressed her back against it.

The sound of bones crackling under her own skin was cold and painful to her ears, but still pushed harder feeling her back bend and twist. Her spine creaked dangerously.

But the Erasers didn't wait for her to finish.

Slowly, with the look of a man who had all the time in the world, the lead Eraser fell forward to settle onto his front paws. All of the ones behind him matched his motions perfectly, one laughing in a high-pitched cackle.

Mutants everywhere started running.

But finally, finally, her back snapped into position and she collapsed onto all fours. Her claws popped out and sunk into the earth and her still wet ears snapped forward. Her human mind faded back as her caracal instincts came to the forefront. Fangs bared themselves.

The first Eraser lunged forward and slammed his fangs around the throat of a downed mutant.

The scream was high and painful and full of a choking fear. It was cut off as the Eraser shook his head and snapped their neck.

Silence.

The mutant slid limply from his jaws, crimson blossoming from its neck. It didn't move.

No one breathed.

The lead Eraser stepped over the dead mutant and grinned with bloodstained teeth.

The second the wall of Erasers started moving, Reflex kicked off the wall and darted forward. A growl built in her throat.

Ace was nearly standing. But she didn't have any time for that. No time for apologizing. She slammed her paws on his back, claws in. He fell hard under her weight.

She bent her head and grabbed the back of his neck. The scruff that all felines had was in her teeth. He went limp.

There were no trees close to her. Growling past Ace's fur, she started to drag him toward the middle of the Arena. He was heavy and was only getting heavier.

The lead Eraser let out another roar of victory as it leaped into the air and snagged the foot of a flying mutant.

Something raced beside her, fangs extended.

Ophia let out a fearsome screech and leaped at an Eraser. The wolf howled and swiped a claw at her, but Ophia merely jumped backward and snapped her mouth open. A thin stream of venom shot from her fangs and splattered over the Eraser. It screamed, high and shrill.

Neon had her back to a wall, but she didn't seem scared. Her fists were clenched.

Reflex reached the base of a tree. A thin one perched on the edge of the grove in the Arena. It was short, and the closest branch that she could get to wasn't that high off of the Arena ground.

Ace's scruff was still in her jaws. His eyes were open as slits.

She tightened her grip and slammed her front paws into the tree. Her back claws scrabbled at the bark until they got a hold.

But as she tried to lift a single paw to go higher, Ace nearly pulled her down. She flattened her ears and pulled them both up. Her claws ripped a line down the bark.

Foot after foot, she wrenched him higher and higher into the trees. Ace was dead weight that was slipping farther and farther with every rise up. She tightened her grip until her fangs bit through his neck. Blood met the tip of her tongue.

But still, she rose until there was a branch only an arm's length away. She went one step higher. It was so close. Fury bubbled up in her veins and she leaped for it, catching her claws in it at the last second.

Her paw slipped.

Desperately, she lurched forward and flung Ace over the branch. He gave a startled yowl and dug his claws into the bark. He perked up, eyes slit beyond recognition.

She was still hanging by her claws from the lower part of the branch. Gritting her teeth, she swung her legs around until they gained purchase on the trunk. And then she was up, huddled next to Ace only ten feet above the Arena.

Ophia was underneath their tree, fighting back to back with Neon. There was a collapsed pile of fur only a few feet away from them. Erasers raced around them.

There was no holding back. Claws weren't retracted. Fangs were bared. Far off, a mutant shrieked in pain.

Reflex curled her tail closer to her body, pressing against the trunk. The branch was only wide enough she could sit instead of stand.

But then the lead Eraser paused in his pursuit of a mutant. He settled back, body tensed and tail straight out. His eyes flicked upward to the trees, where leaves rustled and branches shook. And behind the cover where mutants hidden in the trees, out of the Erasers' reach.

A grin curled over his fangs.

He leaned backward, braced his legs, and howled.

Every other Eraser froze, looking over to him. A mutant crawled away, dragged a leg with a cut bigger than it was.

The lead Eraser simply grinned and pointed upward.

Half of the wolves' eyes brightened in understanding, while the others simply turned back and started to attack once more.

But then wings sprouted from Eraser's back from where they had been tightly curled, and things got more complicated.

It took about two seconds for a grey-furred brute to lunge through the air toward Ace.

Reflex leaped from the tree and landed on its back.

Immediately, they spiraled down. Reflex shrieked and bit down, past fur and skin. The Eraser roared and fell faster.

They landed on the ground with a devastating _crunch_. But Reflex just yowled. Her human mind was nearly gone at this point.

Ophia snarled, low and furious, and hissed at an Eraser that was too out of range for her venom. Neon leaped behind her, tackling an Eraser sneaking too close.

Reflex whirled and lunged after a gray striped figure. But it was just Felix, and she pulled up short just in time. The mutant gave her a wide-eyed expression before darting off toward the trees. She turned and ran after a black-furred Eraser.

The wolf grinned at her with teeth stained pink. Behind it, the slumped form of a mutant stood stark on the ground.

Reflex dug her claws in and charged. But the Eraser ducked below her leap. Its fur started to ripple.

In the time it took for her to turn around, there was a woman with more tattoos than skin grinning down at her.

The woman turned tail and sprinted away. Reflex was more confused.

Why would any Eraser willing shift back in an Arena full of mutants trying to survive?

There was the hiss of the doors, and then them closing again.

Reflex faced the wall and the glass window that was ever dark. What were they doing? Sending in more Erasers to continue this massacre?

She got her answer as something sharp snapped into her leg and everything went dark.

* * *

 **Hello, everyone! Another chapter in under a day!**

 **Though honestly, I'm not that pleased with one. Fight scenes aren't my strong point, and writing feral characters is even farther out of that comfort zone. I feel like I either add too much or too little detail and it falls flat.**

 **But eh. You guys needed this scene and here it is!**

 **Reflex has shifted again and saved the exhausted Ace. Endurance tests are probably the only canon test in this world. Anyone remember the treadmills?**

 **Yeah. That's what they are. But probably worse.**

 **But hey? Did you guys like the ideas in this chapter, even if you don't like the writing? I can't wait till the next one when we get a little more experimenting in.**

 **And on that note, you still haven't told me any ideas for what you want to see happen to the little group! Come on. I know that like I wrote this less than 24 hours ago, but still.**

 **Ideas, please!**

 **Although I do know have a ship name for Neon and Ophia. Neophia is sweet XD**

 **Anyway! Please read and review!**

 **Frost OUT!**


	14. Chapter 14

_Fear fear fear amusement fear_

Ace was huddled in the branch of the tree, desperately slamming his back against the trunk to try and hide his blazing white clothing.

An Eraser howled, long and full of grim satisfaction.

His muscles still ached something fierce and strong and heavy, torn apart by the endurance test. That didn't help in this horrible game of survive-or-be-killed.

There was a mutant slumped on the ground only a few feet away from the base of his tree. He had felt her, felt every inch of her emotions as she slowly bled to death over the ground.

The fierce screaming of pain and fear and horror as she clutched her torn open stomach only grew and grew and grew until suddenly-

It didn't. Like a candlelight, the mutant's life had been snuffed out.

And he had felt _every second of it._

 _Fear fear fear_

An Eraser beating slick white wings roared past him, only a few feet below his branch. Ace shut his eyes and covered his serval ears as if that would do anything against the sudden feeling of _hunger hunger happiness hunger_ he felt. His fur was fluffed heavily up all over his body and his claws had left marks an inch deep over the wood.

 _Fear fear fear FEAR FEAR_

A mutant screamed, and Ace felt a tear slip out of his eyes.

It wasn't meant to be like this.

What had happened to escape?

But, in a blaring noise that shrieked from above, a beep sounded over the Arena. Ace froze.

The Erasers stopped moving as well. The mutants booked it into the cover of the trees and laid there, huddling.

There were only a few left. He was on the edge of the forest, but he could see most of them. Neon and Ophia were tucked close to a tree, sucking in deep breaths. Ophia had something glimmering on her face as she bared scarlet tinted fangs. There was Loki, Felix - a few others. More than six.

No Reflex.

A voice buzzed into life, pleasant and polite and talking to a room that reeked of death. "Gather all and restrain. Gather all and restrain."

And then it clicked out of existence.

There was silence in the room once more, but it was broken by a brown furred Eraser. It cackled and stood up on all fours, fur melting away like water.

Fangs slid back into its mouth and ears shrunk and moved down. Bones snapped and crackled until they formed a man.

Ace recognized him as the lead Eraser who had taunted them.

There was a blast of _amusement amusement hunger,_ but his face bared a taunting smirk.

"Now, little mutants who survived." His voice bordered on cooing. "There's an easy way and a hard way. Easy way? You come here and we tie you up and take you to where you need to be. We'll even let the straps be a bit looser than usual."

Erasers lined up behind him, still shifted. One grinned past a fleck of white clothing caught in its jaws.

"The hard way, however, involves you fighting and us ripping your spine out of your back. You're expendable."

There was a moment of pause in which the Eraser grinned and cracked his knuckles slowly.

 _Happiness fear fear hunger_

And then a mutant burst out of the trees, white tail whipping everywhere. Curled shoulders and pointed ears, terrified expressions and black fur teardrop markings. Felix.

He was frozen ten feet away from the lead Eraser, back as stiff as an iron rod. "I surrender. I surrender." He babbled, voice low and desperate.

The lead Eraser cackled and thumped him over the back, making the feline mutant lurch forward. He turned and gestured to an Eraser behind him, who reached forward and grabbed Felix rather gently by the arm. He was led docily through the open door to the Arena, his tail quivering and ears flat.

"See what happens when you cooperate?" He grinned.

Someone with pale grey fur covering their whole body stepped forward, legs quivering. "What are they going to do with us?"

The Eraser snapped his teeth before playing along. "We have some ideas planned. More DNA would be interesting and some scientists have always wanted to see whether we could pull your current DNA back out of your body. Should be… intriguing." His voice rumbled like thunder on the last word, _amusement happy sadness_ dripping off his body.

The mutant tensed but walked forward. "Don't hurt me."

There was a cackle and two more Erasers stepped forward, baring two thick leather straps.

"Of course not! We leave that up to the lab."

They were snapped in and led out, fur sticking straight out and amber eyes squeezed lightly shut.

Ace didn't move. He was frozen against the branch, shuffling his weight lower and lower to try and hide his bright white clothing.

But then the Eraser sighed. "No more? Ah well."

Three people stepped up behind him. They were in human form - two males and one female covered in tattoos. With a grin, they showed something gripped loosely in their hands.

A silver gun with a large trigger. Ace didn't breathe.

 _Fear fear fear fearfearfear_

A rustle burst into existence as a mutant turns trip and ran deeper into the woods. Barely turning, one of the men raised his gun and shot it into the woods.

There was a thump of a body collapsing. The lead Eraser stepped back.

And then the woman with tattoos looked up at him coyly, raised her gun, and fired.

He fell from the tree and knew no more.

When he woke up, Ace knew something was wrong.

Maybe it was the _joy FEAR wonder FEAR curiosity FEAR_ burning through his mind.

His yellow eyes snapped open to the glass.

He was in a small room, maybe five square feet and ten high. It was made of white tiles that were marred by cuts at least four inches long and half an inch deep. They looked like claw marks. But there was one different wall, made of a clear glass. Through the window showed a white room lined with other glass walls.

Mutants snarled in every one of them.

The Lab. He was here again.

No restraints were on his body but there was no escaping from the rooms they were locked in unless a whitecoat let them out. And that wasn't happening.

And then Markus appeared, slowly walking down the row with his ever-present clipboard in hand.

He paused at the one next to him, eyebrow raised. Ace could hear him talking through the non-soundproofed glass.

"She was a failed experiment, wasn't she? Used the wrong amount of DNA and made her too deadly. Well, it's as good of a time as any to fix that. Get Brenner working on something to counteract those marks."

Another spike of _fear._

Markus moved on and looked inside the next glass. Ace hissed furiously at him.

"Oh, it's the empath. We'll be testing that quite a lot in the coming days, don't you worry."

He tapped a finger against the glass, musing aloud. "Though truly, what haven't we done? You've felt mutants die, felt them hurt, felt them win. What use do we have for an empath? They're of no use except for as an-" _amazement happy_

Markus froze and then hummed something. He pressed a buzzer on the edge of his clipboard, and within a minute a whitecoat bounded up to him.

"Fit SH02 with an electrical collar, start with a beginning voltage. Get it in with no troubles and add in claw covers. Don't muzzle him. Then get him in the room with KBNZMB03. Find a chained chair or something. He can't get out."

They nodded and ran off, barking orders to people he could not see.

But he was too petrified to even try and think.

Why did Markus want him? Why was being an empath suddenly useful?

Markus moved, humming softly a gentle tune. And then an Eraser matched up to the glass, furry paw pressing to something on the left side.

The glass began to open. And his floor dropped beneath him.

In a second, he was five feet under the ground and the Eraser was looking in. With one impossible strong arm, it reached down and grabbed him by the back of his clothing. It hauled him up, hissing and scratching and attacking the arm with everything his claws could give.

And then it snapped something cold around his neck and clicked a button.

Electricity shrieked through his veins, frying everything it touched. He screamed and fell limp, even as the voltage cut out. A buzz burned in the back of his ears.

The Eraser closed covers over his hands and feet and picked him, furry arms tight over his shoulders to stop him from moving. But he couldn't have if he wanted.

His fur was sticking out straight on end and his mind still hummed with the crackle of lightning.

He had never had a collar before.

The Eraser walked out of the Lab, but he barely noticed.

At least until he was in a different room, one he had never seen before.

It was made of a grey material he couldn't recognize. There was a table, one made of some sort of metal. There were three chairs, two on one side and one on the other. There were chains on two of the chairs.

Ace finally started to struggle when the Eraser walked closer to the table.

But the second it reached for the button, he snapped into stillness and didn't move. He didn't even dare to breathe too loud. The Eraser set him down on the chair and instantly clicked his wrists and ankles into restraints.

And then he left, and Ace was strapped to a chained chair with a button on the table. It was a simple thing, a grey on a darker grey pad. Maybe the size of his palm.

His chair was bolted to the ground, as he soon found out.

The door burst open and a man with a clipboard walked through. Markus.

He shot a dark smirk at Ace as he settled into the chair next to him, wrapping his hand around the button and setting it just within sight. His fingers danced along the top.

Ace didn't think he should rightfully be conscious with how much he was holding his breath.

 _Smugness happy curiosity_

The door on the other side of the room clicked open and exposed a fighting mutant. Green and blue wings. Pitch black scales. Hacked off hair.

Loki.

Two Erasers managed to get her in the room, pinning her down to the other chained chair. Her wings were bound behind her back, strapped down almost painfully against her shoulders. Covers were over her entire arms and there was a muzzle around her mouth.

And then she was chained down, her muzzle ripped off, and the Erasers left.

Her eyes instantly snapped to Ace. "What are you doing here?" She hissed, voice more worried than angry.

 _Fear_

"KBNZMB03. I've been told that you are the little leader of the escaped mutants."

Loki growled low in her throat, feathers bristling over her back.

"Are there any more still out there?"

"No," she snapped out, narrowing her eyes and baring her fangs. They extended out of her mouth, sharp and deadly.

Markus didn't even flinch. "SH02. Is she lying?"

He froze.

 _Fear fear anxious scared fear anxious nervous_

Loki stared at him, eyes strong but scared. She didn't move, shoulders shaking.

Markus' hands danced over the button.

Ace steeled himself. "She's lying."

* * *

…

 **I'm not dead?**

 **Sorry sorry sorry! I was busy. It's NaNoWriMo, I started a new fic, and life is getting in the way. Also, school.**

 **But hey! Everyone else was captured and they're in the Lab. Ace is getting used by Markus for his empath skills and is being forced to tell whether mutants lying. I wonder how Loki will react…**

 **Only I know! Or maybe you, if you tell me an awesome idea and I add it in.**

 **Because after all, it's that what SYOC stories are for? Gimme some ideas!**

 **But hey! Do you guys like this chapter? I'm a bit iffy on it, but I still enjoy writing this. We should see Ace becoming a bit like a servant to the whitecoats, a lot like Felix. Also, I think that either next chapter or the one after that, we should see some more Ophia and Neon.**

 **And I want a mutation to see if we can get them together.**

 **Also, who do you think Markus was talking to in the cage next to Ace? Tell me in the reviews!**

 **Anyway! Please read and review!**

 **Frost OUT!**


	15. Chapter 15

Markus' smile was like a knife cutting across his face. "Good."

Ace was dying inside, but he kept his face blank and pointed forward. He couldn't give anything away at this point. Nothing.

 _Betrayal curiosity_

Loki was nearly as composed, but her feather rustled in a fury and her fangs were sliding barely out of her lips, extending slowly. Her eyes, gleaming dangerously, snapped in between the two of them, mouth set in a hard line.

Markus adjusted his clipboard, rustling the top paper to show the second. His eyes flashed. "Second question. Are there more escaped mutants that have left us recently?"

 _Resignation sadness_

"Yes."

A finger danced over the surface of the button for his collar. He stilled, sharpened teeth grinding in his skull. He remembered being strapped down to a table, Markus standing off to the side as he cried out. He remembered the doctors taking sandpaper and injections to sharpen his teeth after he wore them down. He remembered not being able to eat, mouth bleeding.

 _I have a plan_. "Truth."

"Good." There was something much too pleased in the man's voice. "Have you found all of them or are they still wandering?"

He guessed that if Loki was free, then she would have been snarling and writhing and furiously biting down on Markus' neck. Her wings would be snapping around, blowing them off of their feet. She settled for having a single drop of venom drip from her fangs, landing with a sizzle on the metal table. Markus eyed it almost worriedly, eyes flicking up to the security camera in the corner of the room.

Something buzzed in his ear and he nodded. Ace caught sight of a metal thing perched over his lobe.

"Wandering," she hissed.

"Elaborate."

"We only found four. The rest are still out there." Her voice was barely more than a whisper, though it had taken her a while to speak as if she was searching for the right words as to not give it all away.

 _Resignation resignation_

Markus shot him a look. He cleared his throat, mouth suddenly too dry and rough. "She's right."

"And of course you would send more of your mutants out after them, wouldn't you? Do you know where they are?"

"No."

She was full of some desperate hope, one that burned the edges of his mind. Her eyes landed on him for only a second but they were bright and full and scared.

 _Fear fear fear fear_

He sucked in a breath. "Truth."

Loki froze.

Markus tched, lips falling into a frown. "Well, that's a shame." He didn't even look at Ace, fingers tracing words on his clipboard. "We've kept tabs, and there are around fifteen mutants that have escaped before a week ago. They shouldn't be too hard to find."

He smiled at her with too many teeth, head tilting to one side. "I wonder how it feels to be here, trying to lie to me but unable?"

Loki hissed furiously, straining forward. The bindings on her wings crackled.

To his credit, he barely flinched. "I'll be coming back here in under a few hours for you to answer me a few questions. Don't get too comfortable, though I'll release your wings. If you hurt me, I'll cut them off."

Ace nearly bit his tongue off.

Standing carefully, he tapped a button on the edge of his clipboard. Instantly the door behind Loki popped open, a whitecoat stepping quietly in. He was tall and thin with a pair of wire cutters in his hand. Markus nodded at him, standing up smoothly and stepping back. The whitecoat leaned forward and cut the bindings on Loki's wings.

Instantly, they snapped forward and out, falling at least two feet short form hitting Markus. He tutted, turning around. "Now now, don't do that. I'm only letting you have your wings free as to not damage them. Don't make me stop."

He and the whitecoat left the room, doors sliding shut behind them.

Loki immediately snapped her eyes toward Ace's. Her back was to the security camera, face hidden. _Act it up_ , she mouthed.

He sprang to attention. "I had to!"

Her snarl was deep and dangerous. "That gives you no right."

Ace had to admit he was quite scared of her, this side that hissed furious accusations. But he saw her wings, green and black and proud, inching up along the back of the wall. Toward the security camera.

"The shock collar-"

"That doesn't matter-"

"But he would have-"

" _I don't care_ -"

Her wings snapped up, colliding with the camera with a _crunch_. She yelped but did it again, and a mangled mass of metal fell to the ground. Shards of plastic skittered over the floor.

She immediately shot back to him, though her wing fluttered back over to her, and her arms grabbed it protectively. Feathers were bent out of place, and she winced as she fingers touched the edge.

"He had to believe me." Ace immediately told her his plan. "I could hide one of your big lies but I had to tell him that you were lying. He wouldn't trust me otherwise."

Loki nodded, a gin flitting onto her face. "That's perfect. I can work with it, but I don't know what questions he'll ask me." She thrashed in her restraints, one nearly biting through her skin.

Ace was feeling pain from his claw covers, ones that were pushing his fur all sorts of ways it wasn't supposed to go. "When do you think he'll come back?"

She shrugged. "I don't know."

"What should we do?

"We wait."

Neon's pitch black eyes snapped open as her cage suddenly started to move. It was slow and rumbling, the tiles sliding under the wheels. She shot to attention, whirling from side to side. What-

There was an Eraser pushing on the handholds, slowly moving her across the floor of- the Lab. The Lab.

She barely bit back a shriek.

Her fist slammed into the plastic. The Eraser jumped, peering down at her with one bright brown eye. It was a rather pretty grey that she would have loved if it wasn't the fur color of a monster.

Her expression must have been something to see because it snapped back to attention, carefully not looking at her.

Behind, her other friend in a cage came to life. Ophia writhed within her cage, hissing and shrieking and pounding on the plastic surface. Her eyes were slits, venom splattering out from her teeth. It hit the plastic, fogging her vision.

Neon managed one last look back before the Eraser pushed her out of the Lab. The hallway was perfect white lined with glowing lights that glared harshly into her eyes. She squeezed them shut as she was rolled over breaks in the tiles over doorstops until the edge of her cage bumped into something.

She knew what it was. Of course she did.

Though it was hard, she managed to pop open her eyes and stare at the room. The testing room, the one with its hard metal table and cold-eyed whitecoats and syringes and scalpels and knives and pain and fear and _pain_ -

The top of her cage popped open, a claw went in. It was a metal stick with a circle on the end, one held by a whitecoat with a sickly grin on her face. The circle snapped open into two halves, the perfect size.

She hissed and curled up in a corner, shoving her head underneath her arms and legs and torso. The Eraser pushed the cage. She tumbled. And the claw locked around her neck and she was pulled out and laid on the metal table.

And then she _screamed_ -

But her arms were locked down and then her legs and then the claw released and there was something around her neck and then she was helpless helpless helpless _helpless_

Markus leaned over her face, grinning softly. There was nothing nice in his eyes but nothing evil either, just a man doing what he did.

Though the blade in his hand made the image all the more sinister.

Whitecoats buzzed around her, murmuring quickly with words she could not understand. Markus leaned over and carefully cut away the white cloth covering her stomach, using only the tip of the knife. It didn't even nick her skin.

But it did expose the black lines running up and down her chest, the blue splotches dotted over her sides, and the yellow splatters that were as common as freckles.

A few whitecoats hummed approval, stepping near. Her voice had nearly given out.

Markus turned toward her legs, cutting one side of the pants off. There weren't nearly as many markings there, just black lines running parallel to her bones. He frowned thoughtfully, gesturing to others with the knife.

One of them held up a thin container of something yellow that bubbled and popped, barely the size of their finger. There was a label filled with words she could not read. The stopper was pulled off and then it was handed to Markus. He smiled at it before turning back her.

He moved. She barely noticed the knife cutting through her leg, but she definitely noticed when he poured the liquid on her leg.

She _howled_ -

Ophia raged inside her cage, venom dripping over the plastic, fire dying as the day shambled on. More and more mutants were picked from the room and returned, but Neon never reappeared. She was unaware of the whitecoats that gathered over her file and held up a new syringe, grinning as Markus signed his approval.

And Reflex? Well, she didn't think about much of anything, slumbering down below the floor.

* * *

 **...**

 **Heyyyyy**

 **I'm back! And with cliffhangers, no less!**

 **So yeah. It's been a month, but guess what? I've now hit 100 reviews! This is the best thing ever! Thank you guys so much! I read each and every single one of them, don't worry :D**

 **But yeah. Ace wasn't actually betraying everyone, Neon's facing troubles of her own, Ophia's mad, and Reflex is MIA. I wonder where this will put everyone next chapter?**

 **Only I know! But you guys should find out soon enough!**

 **And yes, I'm sorry. I know I don't update this story very often - given as its been a month - but I do enjoy it. I have a bunch of other stories that I work on to and also my novel, but it's fun to just pop back into every now and then! It's always fun to leave you guys with cliffhangers xD**

 **But hey! Here's something cool - you have seen another leader for a different group already in this story! See if you can guess who! They may or may not make an appearance soon…**

 **Anyway! Please read and review!**

 **Frost OUT!**


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